The PSC publishes “The Council Blotter” three to four times a year - a bilingual newsletter with an HR planning and management focus for the Canadian police community.

This is the second edition of the “Blotter”. Since the first issue, in the fall of 2005, the Council has been making steady headway. We are now fully “operationalized” - we have secured core funding, begun our outreach and networking activities, and have one solid project under our belts.

There is a growing sense of enthusiasm about the opportunity for HR integration through the work of the Council.

Policing Environment 2005 - in September, we launched a number of surveys
to reach out to the entire community in an update of the 2000 “sector study”:
     • how the operational and policy environments have changed in the past
       five years
     • the progress made in HR practices
     • our current IT infrastructure
     • we also collected employee demographics to build a national policing
       database to inform effective HR planning

The completed report points to a sector in need of more - more integrated and horizontal HR planning and management, and more of an accelerated
response to the critical challenges in recruitment. It reinforces the potential of

Six years ago, a document entitled “Strategic Human Resources Analysis
of Public Policing in Canada” was published through the combined efforts
of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Police
Association (now CPPA), with funding from the federal government.

The year 2000 “sector study” as it became known was a diagnostic of the human resource challenges facing public policing.
It offered over 25 recommendations under 5 broad priority areas:
• attracting the next generation of talent
• increasing sector-wide efficiencies
• improving the sector’s HR planning capacity
• improving labour-management relations, and

• increasing funding and resources

The most important finding of the 2000 report was that high quality, effective talent in policing will not just happen. It has to be planned and managed across the sector. Better planning and improved HR management practices are crucial in dealing with the myriad pressures in the policing environment.

The primary recommendation of the 2000 report was for the community to collaborate - pool efforts and resources for the benefit of all of public policing in Canada. That document was the catalyst for the creation of the Canadian Police Sector Council - finally operational 5 years later.

One of the Council’s first activities was update the priorities and recommendations from the 2000 study - to provide a year 2005 platform and to launch future activities and research.

A side benefit of the updated process was to:
• re-engage the police community in a “sector-wide” approach to HR planning and management
• enable communications about the value of a sector-wide view and sectoral cooperation on HR issues and challenges.

In August 2005, IBM Business Consulting Services, who had also consulted on the year 2000 study, began the work on the 2005 update.

Over the fall and early winter, we conducted three surveys that were sent to 184 police services across Canada.
• one that collected employee data, and
• two web-based surveys that collected data on HR practices, and the technology infrastructure readiness for e-learning

The data collection process was a success. Through the participation of the sector, the first “employee database” was created - a valuable tool for understanding, analyzing, and planning the impacts of current and future HR practices.

The surveys, combined with a literature search and interviews with key stakeholders, have resulted in a 100 page report - “Policing Environment 2005” - now on the website. The report incorporates a message to the Board from the consultants, and consists of three sections:
1. an up-date on three operational/policy dimensions of the environment - socio-economic, threat, and
    accountability/governance
2. a detailed overview of the “face of policing” 2005
3. up-to-date information on HR practices and technology in the sector.

The findings re-affirm most of the recommendations in the 2000 study, and the report provides a revised roadmap guiding future Council activities. Clearly some progress has been made in the past 5 years - HR practices have evolved only modestly. Individual services continue investing effort, but working independently. The pace and momentum have to be accelerated on most milestones.

More importantly the 2005 update provides impetus - an urgency to act. The workforce situation in policing is vulnerable, demographic change is relentless and technological advancements accelerated. The demands placed on public policing - for crime prevention in the community, for prompt and effective investigation and socially-responsive enforcement - have not abated, but have grown more complex.

The bottom line - unless the sector begins to function as a “sector” with horizontal and integrated strategies and activities to improve HR planning and management - the workforce, programs and service delivery are increasingly vulnerable.

The alarm was sounded five years ago but not much has improved. Committed and focused action is required immediately.

On a cold and snow threatening day in November the Board of Directors of the Council - chiefs of police, provincial government executives, union executives, heads of education and training institutes, with representatives from the police boards and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities - met in Toronto and talked about the direction and work of the Council.

The results of those discussions led to the creation of a strategic business planning document (available at www.policecouncil.ca) - laying-out some
short and longer-term expectations and objectives for the Council:
• high performing/productive sustainable policing
• informed - understanding the environmental dynamics affecting policing -
  better understanding leads to better planning/management

We have just completed a structural and content renovation of the website - same look and feel, but a better focus on the content and easier “clicking” to
get at information.

We’ve structured and interlinked the site to create a dynamic and progressive “campus” where you'll find valuable resources on the HR issues that matter most.

The site will be updated regularly with the information you need, and information you want to share:
• about the policing environment
• research and latest news/trends

Over the coming months, we, through our “e-watch” alerts will be actively encouraging everyone in the sector to visit the website (www.policecouncil.ca) and to register to receive information and up-dates.

With the Board of Directors committed and engaged, the Council is ready to take advantage of what Commissioner Boniface called “an unprecedented opportunity to influence the future of policing in Canada.” Let us know if you want to be part of the solution, we’re building four networks of folks interested in the sector activities.
1. researchers
2. policy/planners
3. HR practitioners
4. education/trainers

Register online at www.policecouncil.ca or contact us. Your input - comments/questions and material - is always welcome - we’re on duty 24/7 at 303-1545 Carling Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, K1Z 8P9.