Mistrust in Ottawa police revealed in internal report

Ottawa police have released an internal report detailing the depth of mistrust some people feel aboutthe force.

The report was doneby the Ottawa policeoutreach liaison team, a temporary unit led by Insp.IsobelGranger thatwas formed after the fatalarrest ofAbdirahmanAbdi in July 2016.

The team'smandate was to repair the fractured relationship between police and the city's black and other ethnic communities.The report was completed in May 2017 and a two-page summary was presented at an Ottawa Police Services Board meeting that month.

The temporary unitconnectedwith more than 1,000 peopleabout their feelings, and inan interview with CBC News, Granger said it was one of themost comprehensive surveys of race relations ever done by the force.

"We had received the message from the community loud and clear that we really needed to listen to what they were saying," shesaid.

Farhia Ahmed, a member of the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition, calledthe report's findings"an honest portrayal of what the community is feeling."

Fear and mistrust

The 142-page reportsays it contains"two overarching and recurringthemes" a fear and mistrust of police, and concerns about leadership, accountability and transparency.

"Some immigrants see the police as a force associated with physical threats, lootings and killings," the report states, addingthat the level of mistrust is elevated amongmarginalizedyouths, especially inSomali, black, Indigenousand Arab communities.

Their parentsare also "greatly concerned for the safety of their youth and any interaction with police," the report says.

And mistrust inpolicing is spreading to other communities.

There is "shock and disappointment [about]police behaviour from middle-class communities who traditionally had no issues with policing," the reportstates.

Granger doesn't characterize the report as critical of police, instead arguingit's more a reflection of community pain following Abdi's deathand other incidents of police violence across North America.

"There was a lot of emotion," Granger said. "During tumultuous times, or when there's a critical incident, a lot of times it will be heightened."

'ZEROconfidence with Ottawapolice'

The consultations also revealed a lack of confidence in police, to the point that "some black communities don't 'tell' or 'snitch' on others," the report says.

"Many from the Muslim community are not reporting hate crimes because they are afraid ofbringing attention to themselves," it adds.

Some people reported feeling that frontline police officers "are doing bad" because "they don't have a strong chain of command that holds them responsible for their actions in the community."

The report also found that the Ottawa policeanti-gang unit, known as DART, is perceived by many in black, Somali and Arab communities as the "racial profilingunit."

"Somali youth have claimed beatings and confiscation of property illegally at the hands of DART members," the report reads.

One comment states simply: "ZERO confidence with Ottawa police."

"There are a lot of people who expressed their perception and in my view their perception has to be reality because that's their experience," Grangersaid.

183 recommendations

The report includes a long list of recommendations, some of whichhave been tossed around in various Ottawa police reports, reviews and consultations since the mid-1990s. The recommendations include:

• Adding to the force's values thatOttawa police arecommitted to a diverse and non-discriminatory police service.
• An acknowledgment from the chief thatsystemic barriers, discrimination, biases and racism exist in the force.
• Identifyand implementa way to measure and track accountability.
• Preventofficers implicated in an incident frominteractingwith the community until they are cleared.
• Reviewthe mandate of the guns and gangs unit.

Chief CharlesBordeleauwrote in an email thatsome of the recommendations have resulted in change, and pointedto the creation of the community equity council, a new hiring effortfocusedon visible minorities, and the launch of the internal diversity audit.

Granger said herteam'srecommendations now form the foundation ofthe force'smulti-year bias-neutral policing strategy, and that compiling the feedback has helped build relationships.

"I know about change. It doesn't happen overnight," Granger said. "We have a lot of work to do, but work is being done."

Dahabo Ahmed Omer, another member of the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition, said the "answers are right in this report, they're right in all the other reports. All [police]have to do is implement it."