We Look Forward To Police We Can Trust: QUOTABLE
“I, for one, would like to imagine a future where Eric’s children Jasmine, who is just 21 months, and Hugo, who is just eight months, will safely attend a school and positively interact with uniformed police officers.”
Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Thomas Carrique
The death of a human being is a very sad event as we all know for most of us have experienced the loss of a loved one.
Time heals but it takes so much time. Grief has its own schedule to disappear and one can do little to make that process quickly pass into happiness. So we feel for the friends, family and colleagues of OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller who was recently killed in the line of duty.
That said, the funeral of Sgt. Mueller is probably not the place to raise politics but that’s what Commissioner Carrique unfortunately did.
When we were very young, the visit of a uniformed police officer to a school was an exciting event. We looked at an officer as a kind person who would protect us against misfortune.
So Why Was The Kanata Bear Shot?
And like Commissioner Carrique, we all long for the days when that rather naïve but hopeful faith returns and a uniformed police officer is welcomed at schools again.
But police need only look in the mirror to see what their public-perception problem is.
An incoming Ottawa police chief said that his goal was to rid the Ottawa Police Service of racism and misogyny. Whoever thought the police would come to that point? The police should be fighting racism and misogyny but not having to fight it within the force itself. It boggles the mind. Some of the good guys have become bad guys.
The federal inquiry into the Freedom Convoy protest found that some officers worked at cross-purposes of the will of the public and their own administration. The police have politicized themselves which is far, far outside their primary job which is to enforce the rule of law.
The police should not be racist, misogynists, thieves or fly a flag, The Thin Blue Line, which is connotated with racist protests by far right-wing nutbars in the U.S. People should not be frightened of officers at the Ottawa Police Services Board because they worry about retribution by appearing at the board. Ottawans should not have to march protesting racism in the force. Residents should not repeatedly be seeing reports in the media of officers being charged or misbehaving. Officers should not be planting a weapon as evidence during the raid on a home.
When you call the police in Ottawa today, residents should see a friendly face who is willing to help. But often that’s not what happens here. When you call the police in Ottawa, you can never be sure what you are going to get. Sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes downright ugly.
If the police are looking for the suspects who have caused the horrible PR problems of the OPS, they need look no farther than their police station.
The police have lost the public’s trust. Break a trust once and it is almost impossible to get back. That’s the situation the OPS finds itself in.
So who can repair the public’s misgivings about the police? The police themselves by not breaking the law … that’s a good place to start.
Time To Get The OPS Under Control
The police have gotten themselves into this predicament. It’s up to them to get themselves out of it. The police are quick to find fault with the public but very slow to learn that they are responsible for their own image.
The public did not create the horrible image of the police. It is well justified by the actions of the police themselves.
The police have broken the trust of the people they are supposed to serve.
The police have gotten themselves into this bad situation. It’s up to people such as Commissioner Carrique to undertake reform of the police.
Commissioner Carrique’s role is to give us much, much, much better and honest policing. Then the image of the police will improve greatly.
Ken Gray
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What an inappropriate comment – wrong time, wrong place!
Does this mean that Carrique has a plan to make every police officer a suitable friend for every child in our schools? It’s not the children or the schools that have brought about the changes in the public perception of the police. Get a mirror, Commissioner, and then cast your eye around to your fellow officers. That’s where the work needs to be done, not in the schoolyard.
V — well said — cheers k
I feel that his comments were unwarranted. Of course we want police that we can look up to. But the last few years show that their agenda is at odds with their jobs. I am afraid that it will only get worse as they become more right wing.
Frank:
I fear that you might be correct.
We really need to de-politicize the police.
We don’t want politics. We want good policing.
Thank you for this.
cheers
kgray