City staff will conduct an accessibility review of the Stratford Police Service Headquarters after Stratford resident Diane Sims brought significant barriers that exist at the building’s entrance — like the lack of an accessible ramp — to the Stratford Police Services Board’s attention Wednesday evening.
When Stratford resident Diane Sims rolled up to the Stratford Police Service Headquarters in her electric wheelchair last month to turn in some police documents needed to complete a background check, she was shocked to discover she couldn’t get to the front entrance.
There was no accessibility ramp in sight and she couldn’t see any signage directing people with mobility issues to another entrance. Unsure what to do, Sims found her way around back to the entrance for the Stratford Ontario Court of Justice.
“I hit the buzzer and a court official told me the police station wasn’t accessible,” Sims said while addressing the Stratford Police Services Board at its Wednesday meeting. “She reluctantly said she’d walk over to the police side (of the building) and have someone come out to help me.”
Meanwhile, Sims said she was left outside to wait in the rain. Eventually, a police clerk came outside to get her documents and let Sims inside to wait while they were processed.
“I was, and remain, simply called and feel like a fourth-class citizen. … Disappointingly, I heard from (my fellow accessibility advisory) committee members that this is an old problem and there’s nothing we can do. That doesn’t sit well with me at all,” Sims said.
Sims, who requires an electric wheelchair, is an end-stage multiple sclerosis patient who is legally blind in her left eye and has reduced vision in her right. As a journalist, author and activist, she quickly set to work looking at photos of a number of police stations in cities and towns across the province similar in size or smaller than Stratford.
In every photo she looked at, those police stations had accessible entrances.
“I just can’t tell you how unsafe I feel now,” Sims said. “If I was robbed, my cellphone would be gone. What would I do? When you go to the police, that is where you want to feel safe. Out of any place in the city, your police station should be safe.”
While board chair and Stratford Mayor Dan Mathieson told Sims the city had been trying without luck to work with the provincial government to fund the construction of a badly needed new police station, he said that project is largely impossible, given the province’s reluctance to sign a longer lease for the building’s court-services side and a lack of commitment from Infrastructure Ontario to providing funding – more than $20 million is needed – for a new station.
Other board members and Stratford Police Chief Greg Skinner, however, apologized to Sims for her ordeal.
“This is not the first time this group has had discussions around the condition of our police headquarters,” said Tim Doherty, who will take over from Mathieson as board chair in June. “It is in significant need of upgrading. It is my hope, after hearing your presentation, that this can be an impetus to us for finally getting off our hands to do something.”
Board member, Stratford councilor and retired Stratford police officer Graham Bunting echoed Doherty’s concerns with the condition of the police headquarters, saying accessibility has been an issue since before the elevator was built on the court-services side of the building. The councilor noted the police station was already at capacity when he retired in 2006.
“I just want to apologize to Diane and thank her for coming in and telling her story to us,” said Skinner, who invited Sims to speak at Wednesday’s meeting. “I think it was important for everybody to hear … (and) understand what it’s like for somebody who has accessibility issues. … (We want them) to feel welcome and to feel dignified in coming to a public building.”
Though a new police station is likely not in the cards for Stratford any time soon, the police services board agreed to have staff conduct an accessibility review on the headquarters building to find a way to make it accessible in the interim.
Public buildings will be required to be compliant with standards set out in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act as of Jan. 1, 2025.
In the meantime, Sims said she will work with the police board, the accessibility advisory committee and the city to make the Stratford police station accessible for everyone.
“I hope I made a difference and I will help in any way I can to effect some change. … I would say this is my current crusade,” she said after the meeting.