Promising Practices Towards Continued Improvement

Beyond evaluating compliance with the CSPA, the IoP is committed to identifying leading practices that are working well in policing, assisting the sector in embracing these practices, and raising the overall performance bar. While inspecting for compliance with the PSA, the IoP was also able to observe promising practices within police services as they relate to public order maintenance. The IoP strongly encourages boards, Chiefs’ and the OPP Commissioner to consider adopting these promising practices as they move towards compliance with the CSPA and its regulations concerning public order maintenance.

 

Continued Development of Training

 

The inspection revealed that every police service in Ontario either met or exceeded the previous training guideline provided in the PSM. Initial POU training is now regulated in the CSPA’s training regulation (Ontario Regulation 87/24), which includes mandatory training for members, supervisors of POUs, and tactical commanders of a POU.

 

There are some services that are supplementing mandated training, such as cultural sensitivity training, that is specific to the context in which they are policing, to aid those POU members in understanding the best approach to these events. One example the IoP learned of is Toronto Police Service POU members receiving additional “Foundations of Islam and Addressing Islamophobia, Community Trust and Allyship in Policing” training through an online course available on the Canadian Police Knowledge Network (CPKN) platform. While it is beyond the scope of the inspection to evaluate any specific training of this kind, this is one example of culturally relevant training that police services are providing to their members to make them more aware and effective when engaging in public order maintenance. The IoP views this approach as promising to promoting effective management of events through awareness and education. The IoP also encourages services to share their approaches to training enhancements to drive improved overall performance of public order maintenance across the province.

 

Additional Resources

 

During the on-site inspections, the IoP found that many POUs in the province use varying community resources and physical resources as part of their POUs. These include:

 

i) Police Liaison Teams

Although it was not the central focus of this inspection (as it is not a requirement under the PSA or CSPA), police services that had PLT officers routinely expressed their value in helping to mitigate issues that can arise in public order events. This role was highlighted during proceedings of the federal Public Order Emergency Commission as being a front-facing tool to look at strategies, planning and building front-end relationships with participants during demonstrations. The inclusion of a PLT, with a consistent focus on building trust, engaging demonstrators and understanding crowd dynamics, provides a valuable tool for better managing demonstrations to ensure lawful, peaceful and safe events for the participants, the broader public and the police officers on the ground. 

There are currently several POUs that use PLTs. These teams interact with event organizers prior to the public order event, and often can open and maintain positive dialogue and interface capability that yields positive public safety results. The IoP strongly encourages those POUs that do not currently incorporate PLTs in their approach to consider them and consult with services that use PLTs to gain the benefit of their experience. 

Given their promising results and the importance of their role, the IoP would recommend that the formal inclusion within the mandate of the Ontario Public Order Hub.

 

ii) Mounted Police Units

Two police services continue to maintain mounted police units, with other services taking steps towards establishing a mounted unit. Although there are few units currently, the option exists for police services to request assistance from these Mounted Police units from other police services when their support may be deemed beneficial. 

Among other duties, these units can be used to supplement POUs and assist in responding to crowd management situations. Due to the tall stature of officers on horseback, they create a presence with a unique observation perspective, an expanded field of vision, while also providing the ability to move large crowds and effect crowd control. 

 

iii) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems

Many POUs are utilizing Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and have seen success with them. The RPAS provides real-time, ‘birds-eye’ view of mass gatherings. It features the ability to zoom closely on any area of interest to provide vital information in dynamic situations that may otherwise not be available. This information can assist POUs in effectively identifying public safety risks that may not be visible, as well as serve as a command tool to observe, manage and direct POU operations. The value of RPAS technology is now cemented in the requirement under CSPA Ontario Regulation 392/23, where every POU shall be provided with an RPAS. 

 

iv) Fluorescent High Visibility Ball Caps

POUs are often deployed in large crowd settings with public order members dispersed within the large crowds. Both given the nature of these dispersed deployments, and what will become the increasing use of RPAS, a few services opted to issue fluorescent ball caps to their POU members to improve visibility on the ground for members of the public, and from above for the police service managing the POU’s operations. 

The overall feedback from services that used fluorescent ball caps were positive, noting that members of the POU are easily identified and can be tracked during a fluid and evolving deployment. This was beneficial at large events with multiple POUs present. The fluorescent ball caps make easier for command staff to visualize where their members were within the crowds, both by traditional observation or new RPAS assistance, and then better manage and respond to evolving public order events.