Petition wants WRPS 'diversity' cruiser campaign cancelled

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition asking Waterloo region police to cancel its "diversity-focused" community cruiser project. 

The service said last month it had outfitted police cruiser #7537 with a wrap artwork that "aims to capture the spirit of Canadian newcomers," according to a police news release. The design features a woman wearing a traditional Nigerian head wrap, a Sikh man and a Muslim man and woman. 

Plans are in the works to wrap three more cruisers with the artwork, but Jessica Hutchison, who launched the petition, hopes regional police will cancel the project instead.

"If this is one of their approaches to addressing systemic racism, it suggests to me that they either don't know how to make systemic and structural level changes or they don't want to," said Hutchison, a PhD candidate in social work at Wilfrid Laurier University. 

Hutchison said she's also concerned about the cost of the cruiser project.  

Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin told The Morning Edition - KW last week it costs about $1,500 to design the wrap and an additional $500 per cruiser. 

Hutchison said she thinks the price tag would likely be higher if the full cost of the hours spent planning the initiative were taken into consideration. She would like to see a more detailed budget breakdown for the project, and for that money to be put toward Black and Indigenous-led community programs. 

'Another step on the path forward' says police 

Larkin said this isn't the first time a community cruiser has featured a special design. An earlier project wrapped a cruiser with a Pride flag. 

He said the idea is to spark conversation in the community, and to reflect the police service members who use the cruisers. 

"This is also about our own members being reflected in the cruisers that we use to patrol as we work towards enhanced inclusion and diversity within our police service," said Larkin. 

Larkin said he understands not everyone agrees with the concept. 

"They may think it's a waste of money, but totally understand and appreciate all that feedback," he said during the interview Wednesday. 

"This will not solve and fix the complex issues of racism in our society. It will not fix and actually address systemic issues and systemic bias and discrimination within policing. But I do believe that it's another step on the path forward," Larkin added. 

A spokesperson for Waterloo regional police was not available for further comment Monday.

'Nobody asked for this'

Laura Mae Lindo, MPP for Kitchener Centre, signed the petition and sent a letter to Chief Larkin about the project. Lindo said many people in the community have called and messaged her with concerns.

"The biggest concern that people have had is that this is a project that nobody asked for," said Lindo, who is the opposition critic for anti-racism and citizenship and immigration. 

Lindo said advocates for BIPOC communities have been clear about what they do want from police, such as initiatives to address the disproportionate use of force against Black people. 

She said the "diversity cruiser" project feels especially troubling given that it comes in the wake of two reports into the arrest of a Somali-Canadian man in Kitchener last summer. The reviews found officers, who punched and kicked the man, had acted reasonably given they thought the man was armed. 

"That is a real issue. That is a real cause for concern. That is something that is making Black, Brown and Indigenous community members feel less safe when the police are in their midst," said Lindo.  

"I think what people would prefer to see is an allocation of police resources to actually addressing concrete problems that we have raised time and time again." 

Lindo and Hutchison said some have also expressed concern about another part of the project: what Larkin described as "trading cards" with information about the cruisers that officers will hand out while on duty. 

For some, Lindo said, trading cards evoke the history of lynching postcards traded in the early twentieth century. 

A spokesperson for police told CBC News in an email the cards are not "trading cards" but rather "educational/ informational cards that include a picture of the cruiser along with a write-up about it." 

Lindo said she hopes the petition will convince police to stop the project and listen to community members about where to go next. 

"The unfortunate thing is that the longer we take to actually address those concrete issues is the deeper the divide between racialized communities and the police service is," she said.

"I don't think that that is what the chief wants, and I don't think that's what the community wants."