Thursday morning's Barrie Police Services Board meeting included talk about the steps the local police department is taking to create better relations within the community.
“From our external sources, we have heard they want us to humanize the Barrie police, they want to know who we are," said Barrie police Staff Sgt. Val Gates.
The systemic review of Barrie police's Organizational Culture and Systems was announced shortly after the Black Lives Matter rally held in Barrie in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020 at the hands of a police officer in the Minnesota city.
In July 2020, Barrie police officials set out to identify areas of improvement regarding community response, processes and engagement within a diverse city.
Barrie police Insp. Rob Burke said the team involved in the systemic review was made up of service members who had volunteered to take part.
“I can’t say enough about the interest that was shown with regards to this task and the efforts that the members of the service voluntarily put forward to make it a success,” said Burke.
Multiple internal and external resources have been used to gather and examine data for the review, he said, with research including analytical, focus groups and interviews, surveys and third-party consultation.
Many resources used both internal and external sources.
There are four phases for the review, with the team currently being in the fourth phase.
Gates said nearly all the data collected is complete and it's now a matter of getting a final report ready that is easy to read and understand the details.
“We are seeing both internally and externally that community engagement is a huge piece (of the review),” said Gates.
It is anticipated that the final report will be complete by the third quarter of 2021 and will include a thorough data analysis from all of the information that has been collected.
Burke gave the board his personal point of view about how things have gone. He says the review is already having an effect.
“As we went through the systemic review, Staff Sgt. Gates would actually note... how my views and approach have changed through it,” Burke told the board. “That's just one example of when the conversation starts, if you have an open mind, you can actually change your approach going forward considering all the information and data that is gathered.”
The final report will also include include the 2020 Community Safety Survey with 1,667 responses, more than 20 internal focus groups with Barrie police members and leadership team, more than 10 external focus groups with community members and partners, a policy review and a review of more than 140 procedures.
The board meeting can be watched in full at this link.
