Hiiraan Online

Relationship still difficult but improving, says new report for police commission.

Ahmed Abdulkadir said work needs to be done to improve relationships between Somali-Canadian youth and Edmonton beat officers.

Members of the Somali community in Edmonton are echoing calls from junior police officers who say they need more training to improve community engagement, according to a report presented to the police commission Thursday.

"Our concern is with the frontline police who are not empowered enough to go out there and deal with the community," said advocate Ahmed Abdulkadir after the presentation.

Abdulkadir said he hears complaints around engagement and racial profiling.

"The youth do not trust the police," he said.

In the report, the result of 57 in-depth interviews with officers of various rank last year, lower-ranking officers also identified "tension and misunderstandings" on the front lines.

"The majority of constables, including beat officers, stressed that having more knowledge about the community would significantly help them in their day-to-day interactions," says the 34-page report, co-authored by Sandra Bucerius, a criminologist at the University of Alberta.

Most constables were not aware that Somali-Canadians are Muslim and did not have detailed knowledge of their culture, religion or immigration experiences, the report says.

One officer described how colleagues almost aggravated an arrest situation in which a suspect was agitated because a copy of the Qur'an was lying on the ground.

"The guy just wanted to pick it up," said the officer in the report. "But my colleagues did not pick up on this, because they don't know the rules. So, he got to pick up the (Qur'an) and was cooperating after.

"Rules like that, we need to know them. No one teaches that stuff."

The report said while some officers described receiving cultural competency training, it was not usually specific to Somali-Canadians. They stressed it would be helpful to receive knowledge before taking on a new beat requiring community interaction.

"It would make our lives a lot easier," said an officer. "We basically need to learn everything on the job, a lot of trial and error."

Researchers, who also interviewed 301 members of the Edmonton Somali community between 16 and 30, said 81 percent of youth canvassed indicated they wanted to build a stronger partnership with police.

Following the presentation, police chief Rod Knecht, described the report as "very positive."

"The recommendations are actually quite easy to get going," he said. "We have a group of police officers that are interested, engaged and want to see it work and we have a community that wants to be engaged."

Knecht said it was "very encouraging to see young people say we want to work more closely with the police. I mean you couldn't ask for anything  better than that."

Difficult relationship, but improving

The report found that while the majority of youth still describe the relationship with police as "difficult." But relations have improved, they stated.

Both groups identified then-detective Bill Clark's "infamous" public comments following a 2011 New Year's Day shooting as a low point, but also a pivotal one, helping EPS more deliberately work to improve relations.

"An EPS homicide detective notoriously expressed frustration with the community's apparent lack of cooperation with police investigations," said the report, noting relations were already strained amid a rash of homicides of young men of Somali descent between 2008 and 2011.

Clark, who is now a staff sergeant, called it "absolutely ludicrous" that only one witness in a club, the downtown Papyrus that was full of people, provided a description of a suspect. He suggested if the community wouldn't assist, the investigation would not advance.

Community leaders fired back. They said Clark unfairly put the onus on the community to solve the crime rather than asking why witnesses felt afraid to come forward. The acting police chief apologized to the community.

"Over time, many also realized that he had a point. And I think for the cops it might have been similar,," one young Somali-Canadian told researchers. "So maybe this statement, which I still think was outrageous and racist, was necessary to get something going."

"We haven't been perfect in our interaction with the Somali community," said one officer, while others referred to Clark's comments as probably inappropriate and politically incorrect.

"I think from that point we've gotten better because of the efforts that have been put in," said another member.

Not as far along as they think

One inspector described the shift that has occurred as going from "playing the big, bad cop" to a strategy of reaching out to communities and building relationships, not just to solve crimes but to come up with preventive strategies and programs.

But officers told researchers that while senior members are striving to fix the relationship, "efforts may not be as far along as they might think."

Said one officer: "They've definitely had a concerted effort from management to bridge that gap. Whether it has translated itself down to the street, I'm not so sure."

The discrepancy in perspectives could be partially explained by different experiences, said the report. Senior members are interacting with community leaders but patrol constables are engaging with victims or criminal suspects.

Three younger patrol officers expressed negative perceptions of the community, said authors, noting it "may influence why some officers initiate contact with Somali-Canadians, and the subsequent tone of these interactions."

"(The Somali community is) the problem," one officer stated. "They are the problem."

Overall, researchers said there is a general understanding among police officers that an unreasonable use of force is not acceptable. But four relatively junior officers complained "the Chief does not understand what it means to work in the streets."

More interaction needed

While the majority agreed EPS has strong community engagement and that it is key for good police work, lower ranking members stressed they are under-resourced, over-worked and constantly putting out fires.

"We can't do community policing when we run from fire to fire," said one officer.

A  majority of officers believed negative experiences with police in Somalia were a key reason why community members in Edmonton may view police negatively. But 85 per cent of the Somali-Edmontonians surveyed were born in Canada.

Of those from the diaspora surveyed, 78 percent agreed unsolved homicides are an issue for the Somali-Canadian community while 70 per cent identified the difficult relationship with police as another key issue.

The report said many officers emphasized the value of authentic caring and wanting to learn from the community.

But those in lower ranks called for community-based trainers rather than having, as one interviewee described it, "white officers come in and talk to us about the African community."

The report recommends EPS engage with a broader representation of the community while expanding opportunities for junior officers to interact in a non-policing capacity, to create more understanding.

"It would be good to know that so you can at least — when you deal with these kids — you can at least say I'm not an expert, but I can empathize."