Doug Ford's police 'quick fix' will not help Ontario at all, expert says

The Ontario government’s plans to boost police enrolment by lowering education requirements is igniting questions about what this means for the future of the province.

Many are questioning whether it will lead to more confrontations with police, particularly amongst marginalized populations. Others are outraged that sectors like education and health are being overlooked for the same kind of incentive when it comes to recruitment.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on Tuesday plans to drop post-secondary education requirements for police recruits in the province, as well as offer free tuition, in an effort to boost dwindling enrolment. Currently, police enrolment requires any type of four-year degree to be accepted. Ford’s proposed legislation would mean recruits only need to have a high school diploma to enrol.

The cost of the program is said to be $15,450. Including the additional spaces the provinces plans to open, the cost to cover tuition will be approximately $34 million per year.

On social media, some felt the plan was misguided, particularly at a time when the retention rate of nurses and doctors is falling short in the province.

The move is a much different course than the recommendations proposed just last month from the inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia. It suggested that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police offer a three-year, degree-based model of police training.

Philip J. Boyle is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo. He says more police officers with less education isn’t going to solve long-term problems. Boyle describes it as recipe for more negative interactions between police and the public in the province, especially among people from marginalized and disadvantaged populations.

“It looks like the province is reaching for a quick fix and I don’t think it will be the fix they’re hoping it will be,” Boye tells Yahoo News Canada.

Boyle adds that police training needs to be reconsidered entirely, since the job goes way beyond fighting crime and arresting people. He suggests police education should also include training in social work, negotiation, crisis and case management, and how to respond to people with mental health and substance abuse issues.

“They’re performing a mix of duties — partly acting as a social worker, partly acting as crisis managers, partly acting as problem solvers, as negotiators,” he says. “All of that takes a really complicated mix of skills that doesn’t just come naturally.”

Boyle says the default is to fall back on a crime fighting mode, which he says can only be a short-term fix but ultimately will not help deal with the real issues around crime and antisocial behaviour.

What’s needed is more funding into social services and resources for substance dependency, mental health and unemployment.

“All those structural issues need to be looked at,” Boyle says. “Even the best trained police force will not be able to tackle those issues but certainly not a police force that has even less education than what’s required now.”