“What is probably required is to go in the opposite direction, which is to require more training, more experience, even better pay, and also to be very cognizant of the difficulties of police work.”
Yeager said police are often put in situations that lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, such as stabbings, shootings, deaths, and crimes against children. He is concerned that younger officers with less training could have “problematic” and “very troublesome” results.
“Imagine a veteran police officer now is going to be matched with an 18-year-old just out of the Aylmer police program,” he said.
“I don’t think bringing an arts degree is necessarily the criteria to go to Ontario Police College and to be a cadet,” he said.
More Education Recommended, Not Less
The province announced that the Ontario Police College will train 140 new recruits in 2023 and another 420 by the end of 2024. The 470 cadets who just graduated from the 66-day basic constable training will have their tuition reimbursed, as will students for the next three years, all at the cost of about $20 million.The program will be reassessed after three years.
Yeager supports the province covering the tuition, about $15,000 a year. However, he said most police services don’t want the post-secondary requirement to be removed, nor did those who studied various police forces.
Other reports have made similar suggestions.
Value of Life Experience
John Sewell, who was Toronto’s mayor from 1978 to 1980, is author of the acclaimed 2021 book “Crisis in Canada’s Policing.” He says that more life experience and education are valuable given what police officers have to face.“What we need in police officers are people who, in fact, are very, very experienced with life, who really understand how things work. The problem with lowering the requirements for police officers, you’re getting people who don’t have a lot of life experience. And they’re probably not going to do things that are very smart,” Sewell said.
“If you look at all the problems that police have, a lot of them relate to the fact that they aren’t dealing with crime or anything like that. They’re dealing with social issues, social problems. For that you need good life experience.”
Sewell disputes that there is a clear general trend toward increasing crime, but believes police face significant challenges nonetheless.
“We’re asking police to solve problems that they literally are not trained to deal with. We’re dealing with all these social problems, people who are mentally ill, people who are drug addicts. They aren’t policing issues, I’m afraid,” he said.
“We aren’t short on police officers. And crime levels in Canada are not going up. They’re generally going down. The only crime that’s going up are the crimes of sexual assault. And that’s because the police are now starting to treat women’s complaints seriously, which they never did before.”
Steve Flanagan served as a police officer in Ottawa in various capacities from 1974 to 2009. He told The Epoch Times he supported “direct entries” to the police force who may lack a diploma or degree, but said that a recent high school graduate would not be ready.
“Back in the 50s and 60s, high school was enough. However there was a greater importance placed on academics and real learning. Picking people from high school today would lower standards which are already tanking as it is. What is next, only Grade 8? Police agencies should scout other provinces and have job fairs,” he said.
Flanagan said probation for new hires has already become “a complete joke” because police forces have had to take whomever they can get.
“When I first was with the RCMP, and after the Ottawa Police, when someone was on probation they walked on pins and needles, knowing that they could be let go at any time for just about any reason. Today recruits laugh at this because they know it means nothing.
“There is not enough emphasis put on conversational and people skills. Many officers hired now have the personality of a dead fish.”
Flanagan said politically motivated demands to hire a certain amount of officers tend to diminish their quality.
“The government and cities will have to buck the current trend of quotas. This is most unfair and leads to terrible hiring in many cases. This, however, is easier said than done. It’s time to get a backbone but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.”