Police chief appears at regional council to talk racism in the service, wider community

Waterloo Regional Police Services Chief Bryan Larkin appeared before regional council Wednesday night, after being asked to appear to discuss racism in his service.

In recent weeks, there have been local calls to defund the police. There was also outrage and calls for an officer suspension after the recent arrest of a Black man. The interaction was filmed by onlookers who said the man was known to police for having mental health concerns.

On Wednesday, Larkin talked about the work the police service is doing on equity, diversity and inclusion. He said senior managers plan to meet with members of the service who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour. He also said they want to talk to the community to get find out what needs to change.

"We recognize that change is required," Larkin said. "Our goal is transformation."

Larkin's presentation was followed by questions by councillors, which largely focused on the service's response to mental health calls, but also touched on whether the service is training officers to recognize unconscious bias and white privilege, whether special constables could be used to hand out traffic tickets, equity in the hiring process and the costs of policing. In all, he spoke for more than an hour and a half.

At the end, he said officers are facing "challenging times," and he takes the concerns of the community seriously. 

"I would simply want to reiterate the support for our frontline members that do great things every day. Not perfect. Human. But attempting to do good things," he said.

Woolwich Mayor Sandy Shantz, who sits on the police services board, said she was "impressed with the chief's sincerity and ability to facilitate change locally and across the province."

"He's always looking at new models at policing," she said, adding she has "no doubt going forward we will continue to see good things from our regional police."

'Clearly we need to defund'

Larkin's report did not receive the same praise from Ruth Cameron, director of ACCKWA (AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo and Area).

She described one set of questions posed by Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic to Larkin as a "scripted conversation."

"Clearly we need to defund and re-hire community members who are professionals to do mutual aid, care, health and social services work," she said.

In a five minute delegation, Cameron told councillors about her own experiences of racism in the community and interactions with police.

She raised concerns about the arrest of a Black man in Kitchener earlier this month, saying "my anxiety climbed" not just from watching the video of the arrest, but watching the reactions of witnesses in the video "alternate between bearing witness, intervening at a distance to protect his safety and then turning away because they were terrified they were going to see an act of violence they would never be able to forget."

"I'm a little concerned because I don't see any evidence presented of change in policing's impact on Black and Indigenous people," she said.

Councillors are allowed to ask people who appear as delegations questions. None of the councillors asked Cameron any questions following her presentation.