Building on what they describe as a generally positive relationship with a variety of Indigenous community groups and the Batchewana and Anishinabek Police Services, Sault Police are currently working on a formal education, consultation and collaboration process with area Indigenous groups.
That includes formal training for Sault Police in Indigenous culture and issues at Algoma University and a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Friendship Centre (IFC).
“It (the training at Algoma) is going to be mandatory for the entire service, civilians included, so even our communications staff right down to our clerical staff, and all the officers right up to the Chief, will have to be involved in this,” said Sault Police Deputy Chief Sean Sparling, speaking to SooToday after the open portion of Thursday’s Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board regular monthly meeting.
“It’s being very well built,” Sparling said of the education program.
The program is being put together by an advisory council within Algoma University, which, Sparling said, includes Cathy Syrette, the Indian Friendship Centre’s executive director, Joe Tom Sayers, Algoma University’s Director of Anishinaabe Initiatives, Paul Syrette, Garden River First Nation chief, and a number of Elders and other members of the Indigenous community.
“It is hoped that this plan will also facilitate the recruitment and retention of members from the Indigenous community into the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service,” Sparling wrote in a report to the board.
Later, Sparling told us “our hirings are based on merit, we have standards people have to meet, but certainly we always look to diversify our service to reflect our community and we’re mindful of trying to do some targeted recruiting within the Indigenous community.”
“That includes gender balance in the service as well, and we’re doing the best we can to increase the number of women in policing as well,” Sparling said.
Sault Police, Sparling told the board Thursday, had been at work putting an Indigenous education training program together for about a year.
“One of the issues was trying to find the right partners in the community to do this.”
“It was interesting when Asima Vezina became president of Algoma University because Asima and I have worked together a lot over the years. I met with her and then she introduced me to Joe Tom Sayers, and between the three of us we talked about creating an Indigenous training program for the entire service,” Sparling said.
“They’re actually going to have it ready for us probably by the end of May,” Sparling said.
The Deputy Chief told the board the committee will help the Sault Police Service revamp its procedures and policies in regard to the Indigenous community and advise officers, solidifying police relations with the Indigenous community.
“I think it’s pretty exciting that Algoma University has a really good focus on Indigenous studies, they do an excellent job at it, and I think there’s a real potential that Algoma University is going to build a product here that’s going to be applicable to policing across Ontario, if not Canada,” Sparling told us.
“I think it’s a very unique partnership we’re building here, a really unique training opportunity, and my expectation is with the quality of education Algoma University can put out with our partnership, that they’re going to be able to roll this out across quite a few police services.”
As for how the training will be delivered, Sparling said it will be a mix of online and classroom instruction.
“We have to be mindful a big portion of our operations run on 12-hour shifts so we have to still provide policing to the community, we can’t just take them over to the university for the training, so we’re going to do a lot of it online on our Learning Management System internally, and then we’ll take the officers physically to Algoma University where they’ll set up a very culturally appropriate training environment.”
“We’re not sure exactly yet, but the officers will take a one or two day concentration at the university, and then at the Staff Sergeant level they’ll have some added modules to the training, and at the command level, it’ll be more robust,” Sparling said.
A certificate of completion will be awarded by Algoma University to each police officer and civilian staff member once their training is complete.
Sparling said “we’re hoping to start training sometime in the fall of this year and my guess is it’ll probably take us a number of months to have everybody trained and then it’ll be an ongoing project between us and Algoma University.”
The Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Friendship Centre, currently in the works, includes acting on recommendations within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and support the work being done by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) movement.