Province relaxes requirements for new police hires

In an effort to attract more people into policing and get rid of officer shortages in Ontario, the provincial government has lowered some requirements.

The shortage of front-line officers has existed for several years according to Jeff McGuire, the executive director of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

“It’s a crisis in hiring right now,” said McGuire. “Within the last couple of years the OPP had 8 hundred vacancies, 8 hundred positions they had to fill.”

McGuire said a lot of police services have up to 20 percent of officers off on stress leave.

To help, earlier this week the province announced that it would cut post-secondary requirements for potential recruits and waive the $15,000 tuition fee at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer.

“About 90 percent of those who attend the Ontario Police College have post-secondary education so it’s not going to open the floodgates to those who don’t have the proper education,” said McGuire.

Interim London Police Chief Trish McIntyre welcomed the changes saying, “We have a challenge with keeping up with attrition and also adding to the organization, so this will help.”

Both McGuire and McIntyre said despite changes in the past two decades, policing remains an honourable career, with McIntyre adding, “If you see yourself contributing to your community and helping the most vulnerable, then it’s a career within a career.”