Police forces must recognize mindset shift in cops, says labour expert

CALGARY (CP) - A growing shortage of cops across Canada demands a change in the mindset of police departments and the communities they protect to hire and retain officers, a leading workplace health researcher said Monday. Speaking to the annual chiefs of police conference in Calgary, Linda Duxbury said law enforcement - like many other sectors - is facing a critical shortage of new recruits as baby boomers retire.

And new officers coming in are recognizing that it's a sellers market and they can pick and choose the best jobs, she said. Poaching is also becoming a more important issue among the hundreds of law enforcement agencies across Canada.

"In this market, if you don't deliver and if you expect people to give everything and be grateful for having a job, you're not going to have any cops," Duxbury said Monday.

"And then your community is going to go crazy."

Thousands of new police officers are needed in forces across Canada.

And the younger generation is putting far more stake into work-life balance, spending time with their families and children rather than working themselves into a nervous breakdown or divorce, she said.

"As we move into the sellers' market, it's not all about getting a job - people have a lot of choice. And if it's not in Alberta, it's in B.C., and if it's not in Alberta or B.C., it's in the Maritimes or in England or wherever."

Police forces are also being hit with the growing dilemma of secession planning caused by hiring freezes of the 1980s and 90s when governments opted to rein in deficits and spending.

Duxbury says because it takes at least five years to get a rookie street cop ready for promotion, police forces now have about half the talent pool from which to promote officers.

Chief Rob Davis of the Guelph, Ont., police service said the coming labour shortage in policing was identified 10 to 15 years ago but nothing was done.

"Now here we are at the crisis and we're still wondering 'what are we going to do to try and fix things?"' Davis said Monday.

"We're all in this competition of how to get the best people, and how to keep people."

Davis says his force needs about 15 new officers yearly, but some of the big police departments elsewhere in southern Ontario are "looking for hundreds all of the time."

He says there's been a "huge" change in attitude in officers over his 36 years of policing.

"Understanding the change in mindset gives you the option of now looking at the different and innovative ways of addressing the needs of your people. And it's not just giving them money anymore," he said.

"You need to somehow fulfil their wants and needs or you're going to lose them to other places that can."

© The Canadian Press, 2007