Chatham-Kent police recruiters offer $30K bonus for veteran officers

Amid a shortage of police recruits in Ontario, the Chatham-Kent force is shopping for experienced officers and ponying up a $30,000 bonus for those who qualify in an apparent Southwestern Ontario first.

Article content

The municipal police force has launched an incentive program to attract experienced officers from other forces in Canada, aiming to hire officers already equipped with the know-how to do the job.

Article content

It’s an unusual twist to hiring in a tight labor market, one other forces are kicking around but which only Chatham-Kent and Timmins have so far adopted from what he’s heard, said a spokesperson for an umbrella group representing police chiefs in Ontario.

“In terms of whether or not it’s going to become widespread, I think it is a little early in the game (to tell) but certainly it’s a novel approach,” Joe Couto, a spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, said Wednesday.

Big-city police forces, like London, which pays no hiring bonus for experienced officers, are often on the receiving end of police moving up to larger departments in their careers, but smaller-city forces don’t naturally benefit the same way from experienced officers looking to move on to bigger challenges.

Article content

In a statement, the Chatham-Kent force said it “recognizes the value of hiring experienced officers who possess the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to contribute to our ongoing growth and success.”

Some law enforcement agencies in Ontario are struggling to keep their ranks filled out amid a shortage of new recruits entering the field to replace retiring officers and others moving on to larger forces.

The situation is serious enough that Ontario recently announced plans to scrap the post-secondary education requirement for new recruits, making a high school diploma or its equivalent enough, and said it will pay the full cost of mandatory training for new officers — more than $15,000 — at the Ontario Police College.

Article content

The Chatham-Kent force isn’t immune to the hiring and retention challenges facing police forces across Ontario, said Staff Sgt. Matt Stezycki of the department’s professional standards branch.

“One factor when hiring a new recruit is the considerable amount (of time)” it takes to train and deploy them, compared to experienced officers, Stezycki said.

The Timmins police force launched a similar incentive program in March.

Under Chatham-Kent’s program, officers who join the force from another Canadian police agency and hold a rank of first-class constable or higher will be eligible for a lump-sum $30,000 when they’re sworn into service, the force said.

Besides waiving the post-secondary education requirement for new officers and covering the full tab for their training, Ontario has also announced plans to expand enrolment at the police college in Aylmer.

Article content

Stezycki said those changes will help departments like his in their recruiting, but Chatham-Kent also believes it needs to do more to attract experienced officers.

Policing recruitment woes in Ontario have hit not just small-city forces but departments in major centers, as well.

Some observers have pointed to factors including the growing public scrutiny police have come under in the wake of deadly encounters with officers in the US, recent police deaths on the job in Ontario that underline the dangers of the job and recruitment efforts that fell behind during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Couto said he wouldn’t be surprised if more police forces start offering similar hiring incentives as Chatham-Kent and Timmins, but there are “many different moving parts” to create such programs and they have to be approved and funded by the civilian boards that oversee the forces.

Article content

Forces offering incentives for experienced officers also present a potential problem for departments that lose officers to such programs and can’t easily replace them in a tight labor market.

Couto said the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police is discussing ways to improve recruiting with other umbrella groups for police officers and police service boards in Ontario.

“There are many different pressures in terms of hiring, in terms of not enough qualified candidates and attracting them in different parts of the province,” he said.

More information about Chatham-Kent’s recruitment process is available on the department’s website, at ckpolice.com.

[email protected]

Article content