Hiiraan Online

Andrew Seymour

Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa's police chief has ordered a review of the department's outreach recruitment program following allegations that job applicants may have been provided answers to interview questions.

Chief Vern White said he ordered the review in late September following a complaint from an officer assigned to interview applicants that at least one candidate appeared to have been coached on the interview questions and how to answer them.

"One person thought there was too much mentoring being done. This complaint was that someone in our service spent too much time getting someone ready," said Chief White. "They did one interview and they felt that the answers were too canned, they were too clean and they felt it was because of this outreach program."

The outreach recruitment program is designed to mentor and recruit police applicants, with a focus on candidates from diverse backgrounds and communities, including women, visible minorities and aboriginals.

The candidate in question, who was hired, is training at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, the chief said.

The 25 cadets from the first class mentored by the current outreach team are among the most diverse groups of recruits the department has hired - they include 11 women, seven visible minorities and four people from the gay and lesbian community.

Ottawa police association president Charles Momy said the review raises "serious concerns" about the outreach recruitment program and the quality of the candidates.

Mentors: It's about raising ability, not lowering standards, deputy chief says

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Mr. Momy said he worries the department is potentially risking public and officer safety by passing over more qualified candidates in order to create a more diverse workforce.

"Are they lowering the standards without openly saying they are lowering the standards?" asked Mr. Momy, who said he has heard complaints from officers involved in the hiring process that some candidates are given preferential treatment.

According to Mr. Momy, two probationary recruits were recently forced to resign after being unable to effectively communicate in English.

"That puts not only the public in danger, but it puts our members in danger," said Mr. Momy. "I don't care who gets on, as long as they are competent and qualified."

But Deputy Chief Larry Hill, who co-chairs the committee overseeing the outreach recruitment program, said he finds the association's position "astonishing," since they had a representative on the steering committee that helped form the outreach recruitment team.

"It's about raising people's ability to meet the standards, not changing the standards," said Deputy Chief Hill.

He said it would be "impossible" for the recruits to be provided with the answers to interview question, since the questions are based on past experience and not hypothetical situations.

"There are no right or wrong answers. There is no such thing as a perfect answer in a competency-based interview," he said, pointing out that independent background investigators then validate the information the candidates supply.

Deputy Chief Hill added that the two recruits who resigned were not hired under the outreach recruitment team, which was given a Civil Rights award at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in New Orleans in late October.

Ottawa police Insp. Kai Liu, who heads the outreach recruitment program, said the program is designed to "level the playing field" for candidates from diverse communities who may not have friends or relatives already on the force whom they can approach for advice.

That can include directing potential recruits to information on how to prepare for competency-based interviews, physical testing or improving their résumé.

"Mentoring is not 'here is the answer,' it is 'we believe you can do it'," said Insp. Liu, adding that the outreach recruitment program is not unique to the Ottawa police.

Insp. Liu - who, in 1986, became the first Asian-Canadian hired by Ottawa police - said he is dismayed by the allegations leveled against his unit.

"It is concerning that we have members that may not understand the process," said Insp. Liu, who has headed the recruitment team for the past year. The program was launched in 2003. Prior to 2006, recruitment in Ottawa was passive; now, the team actively recruits new candidates.

While Chief White would not reveal who filed the complaint, the Citizen has learned it was filed by Const. Patricia Ferguson.

Const. Ferguson is an experienced officer who spent the past four years as a facilitator teaching other officers how to conduct the interview process, background investigations and the provincial constable selection process. She has since been promoted to an acting-sergeant position and left the human resources section.

Yesterday, she declined to comment on why she filed the complaint.

Deputy Chief Hill said the review, which is being handled by Staff Sgt. Syd Gravel from the Police Development Centre, is expected to be completed by the first week of December.

Deputy Chief Hill said Staff Sgt. Gravel has interviewed several members of the latest recruit class to determine if anything inappropriate occurred. At this point, he said, the review has not uncovered anything "earth-shattering."

Deputy Chief Hill said the review of the pilot project was due anyway, but Chief White said he ordered the review to be "open and transparent."

Chief White maintains the department "picked the right people" in relation to the latest hiring class and stressed the review in no way "taints these 25 candidates."

"I am not concerned about any of these applicants. If I was, I would have raised concerns before I sent them (to police college)," he said. "They are really good applicants, really good cadets.

"If there is something out there, I will be the first one to fix it. If there is nothing to it, we'll say there is nothing to it."

Chief White said he believes the program is necessary to attract people from communities and cultures that don't usually consider policing as a career.

"It is targeting diverse communities. If we wanted to hire 25 white guys, we don't need any outreach, we can do that tomorrow," said Chief White. "We need to hire more women and more people from Somali and Afghanistan and those types of communities."

Chief White said the outreach program is still operating while the review is under way. None of the current cadets are currently at risk of losing their job, he added.