The Chatham-Kent Police Service is in hiring mode to address a “critical staffing crisis” that officials attributed to a number of concurrent factors.
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The Chatham-Kent Police Service is in hiring mode to address a “critical staffing crisis” that officials attributed to a number of concurrent factors.
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Chief Gary Conn, speaking frankly about the situation, noted the local police department “continues to be stretched very thin” as its deals with a number of ongoing crisis situations.
He said these crises includes the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has regained steam as the Omicron variant sends case counts skyrocketing, an opioid crisis that resulted in 18 overdose deaths in the municipality last year, and the state of emergency that remains in the wake of the gas explosion in downtown Wheatley late last August.
The chief said there are two components to the “critical staffing crisis” being faced by his police force.
Conn, who currently serves as president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, said the first component “surrounds the challenges associated with attracting and recruiting quality applicants to our profession.”
“The continual negative narrative and imaging of our profession has been driven in part by incidents that have occurred in both the USA and Canada,” he said.
Conn said this challenge has been exacerbated by certain advocacy groups, such as the defund the police movement, that demands government take action.
“This no doubt relates to a reduced number of citizens considering policing as a profession,” he said.
The chief said the second component of the staffing crisis is “the challenges associated to maintaining a healthy workforce within an occupation that can take a toll on both a member’s physical and psychological well-being.”
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Conn said the police force currently has 12 members who have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and are off on extended sick leave due to occupational mental-health injuries. He added this is “the highest in the history of our existence and is indicative of the enormous pressures our members are currently under and have been for the last two years.”
Compounding the staffing shortage is the fact that calls for service continue to climb every year, Conn said. In the past seven years alone, calls for service have nearly doubled, the chief noted.
Conn said police are being called upon more “to mitigate complex social trends, which historically were not a police matter,” which makes “for a perfect storm and the need to increase the size of our police service to ensure that we can continue to maintain adequate and effective policing to our citizens. ”
Conn said specifics about the number of new officers needed will be detailed later this month when the police budget is presented to Chatham-Kent council.
He also noted the growth in Chatham-Kent’s population, along with natural attrition, also factor into the need for more officers.
When comes to finding staffing solutions, the chief pointed to key themes in the police service’s strategic plan for 2021-2024 that focus on investing in leadership, recruitment and relationships.
“Our ‘people’ based strategy will further enhance our reputation through an advanced recruitment approach,” Conn said.
Along with the recent creation of an equity, diversity and inclusion co-ordinator position within the department, “this new model will enhance our continued effort related to (equity, diversity and inclusion) through the pursuit of diversity among the members of our service, ”The chief said.