The face of law enforcement in Centretown says he’s disappointed by a city decision to extend his service in the community by only one year instead of two.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes and community representative Shawn Menard say they supported Const. Nathan Hoedeman’s push to create a five-year term for community police officers.
“We’re at the service of the community and the community police officers are at the forefront in the community,” says Hoedeman.
“You would think that what the community wanted would be kind of important.”
As chair of the community police officer subcommittee, Hoedeman says he began hearing complaints from residents and his 16 fellow CPC officers about the three-year term.
Hoedeman has served as the CPC officer at the Somerset Community Police Centre since the fall of 2006. His term was set to end this fall, but the recent one-year extension has allowed him to stay until the fall of 2010.
“As much as I would love to stay and I could certainly do this for the rest of my career, I’m speaking on behalf of a group of people,” says Hoedeman. “Most of them want to stay in their positions because they’re passionate about it.”
Allowing CPC officers to have longer terms would help create stronger connections with the neighbourhoods they serve, says Hoedeman.
“It takes a while for you to get to know the community and for the community to get to know you,” he says. “It’s one of those jobs where the longer you’re in the job, the more of an expertise you acquire.”
There has been trouble filling these positions because recruits often perceive policing as reactive, and they do not want to take on a more preventative role, says Hoedeman.
“There’s nothing less sexy than having a police officer come to a complete stop, turning his lights off, looking around, turning them back on, going through the intersection and making sure everything is clear,” he says. “It’s the drama that people love and it’s completely unrealistic.”
But extending the terms for CPC officers would solve this problem because current officers could stay in the position until another officer was willing to take over, says Hoedeman.
“My supervisor would say, ‘Here’s a person who has applied for your job. This is their potential to succeed in the role. This is why they have an interest and so I’m going to view that versus your application to stay in the job.’ ”
Shawn Menard, president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, says CPC officers play vital roles in communities by providing safety and information on issues for citizens.
“Residents recognize the face of a community police officer and feel more comfortable with them,” he says.
Hoedeman works with the CCCA in a number of ways, including contributing columns to the association’s newspaper, the Centretown Buzz, and the online site for Centretown News. He also helps perform safety checks on Bank Street picking up used needles.
“I think that’s one of the biggest examples of the kind of quality knowledge that we put to good use in Centretown,” Menard says.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes says in the past, CPC officers have been pushed out of their roles just when they were starting to be effective in their communities.
Holmes would like to see CPC officers have five-year terms so they can really make an impact in their neighbourhoods, she says.
“They get to know people on the streets and they get to know the businesses. It’s a real help if they stay around longer than a couple of years.”
While his term comes to an end next fall, Hoedeman says he just tries to focus on the day at hand.
“Who knows next year what I have in store for me. I know that I’ve found my passion so it would be very hard for me to go into another job where I couldn’t have the same level of passion for the work.”