By Melanie Sharpe
A local volunteer committee is increasing trust and communication between aboriginal, visible minority communities and the police.
The Community Police Action Committee, COMPAC, was set up five years ago.
It is a group of police officers and more than 20 community members that represent the city’s diverse religious and cultural groups.
“It’s helped to break down a lot of barriers. COMPAC has been doing a lot of positive things,” says Floyd Hutchinson, Ottawa police diversity and race relations officer.
Hutchinson says tensions between minority groups and police are usually based on misunderstandings and the committee tries to overcome this.
One of the group’s achievements is the Somali Youth Basketball League.
Hutchinson explains there were problems with Somali youth having little to do and nowhere to go.
Community members approached the committee, and police helped form a basketball league that has been running for three years.
“It’s not a traditional way of policing,” he says.
“But the Somali Youth Basketball League is really an excellent initiative that the police have helped to start.” The committee has also formed small teams that respond immediately to tense situations between police and minority community members. The groups of volunteers and police officers are called Critical Incident-Critical Situation teams.
Centretown police officer Sgt. Uday Jaswal says the teams are deployed to handle a variety of situations.
He describes an incident when police entered a Sikh household without taking off their boots. Jaswal says it’s disrespectful to enter a Sikh home wearing shoes or boots, but the police officers didn’t know.
Jaswal also says the teams were involved in the Ambassador Bar and Grill incident in January 2004, after police were accused of racial profiling. “The teams develop a helpful dialogue. They are an effective way to bring communities and police together,” he says.
Jaswal has been working with COMPAC for years, but became an official committee member during the group’s open house.
The event was held to recognize International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It also introduced new committee members and honoured retiring volunteers.
Centretown resident Greg Frankson was one of many people that packed into the small offices of the Community Police Centre on Somerset Street West for the event. He says he is a strong supporter of police and community co-operation.
“A community that feels safe with police is a safer community,” he says.
Shoon Omar recently stepped down from the committee and was recognized for her five-year contribution during the open house. Omar was one of COMPAC’s first volunteers. She says the group has made positive changes but there is always room for improvement.
“COMPAC has been successful, but change doesn’t happen overnight it takes time. We’ve made some change, but there is still a long way to go.”
Omar says the committee doesn’t only create better relationships with the police and community groups, but it also connects different cultures within the city.
Hutchinson says he agrees.
“If you look at the big picture, it’s a win-win situation. You could never get all these people at the same time, at the same table, dealing with a lot of diverse issues if you didn’t have an organization like COMPAC.”