Ottawa police plan to fill 'critical shortages' with 28 new officers

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Police Service says it will hire 28 previously approved new officers to fill "critical shortages" in its traffic unit, guns and gangs unit and the sexual assault, child abuse and partner assault sections.

A report for the Ottawa Police Services Board answering questions from board members about the 2022 draft budget outlines vacancies in several units at Ottawa Police Headquarters.

The 2022 draft Ottawa Police budget forgoes hiring 30 new officers next year. The Ottawa Police Services Board will vote Monday on the $346.5 million budget, which includes a $14 million increase in funding.

Several board members have asked Ottawa police staff about the 28 previously approved FTE positions in the budget that remain vacant this month. The positions were originally approved in 2020 with funding in the 2021 budget, but they were not filled this year as the service used the funds to offset inflationary costs in the budget.

"The OPS face multiple gaps in staffing for a variety of reasons including increased calls for service, complexity and changing trends in crime and staffing pressures such as sick leave and WSIB absences," says the report for Monday's meeting.

"As part of this Draft Budget, the OPS will use the 28 FTEs to fill critical shortages in priority areas."

The report says the traffic unit, sexual assault and child abuse and partner assault sections and the guns and gangs unit are the priority areas for hiring the 28 new officers.

Staff note the traffic unit is currently at 60 per cent staffing, with 20 of 33 positioned filled, while the guns and gangs unit is facing "multiple staffing shortages" with seven positions empty.

Ottawa police say the sexual assault and child abuse and partner assault sections has been dealing with staffing shortages for years.

"Moving forward, OPS will work to increase permanent positions in the area to ensure our staffing model reflects staffing standards followed by other police services and to introduce a joint risk assessment capability into our case management system," said the report.

Other shortages within Ottawa Police headquarters including the fraud unit short three investigators, General Assignment Units in central, west and east have an average vacancy/shortage rate of 26 per cent of their complement of 50 investigators, and the homicide unit has a vacancy rate of 25 per cent.

Five years after the Ottawa Police Service created a cyber crime section, it has not placed an investigator into the section.

"The four vacancies remain today," said staff. "This does not mean that the OPS does not enter into cybercrime investigations, rather that we rely upon the Fraud Unit and the General Investigations Units to provide some basic level of expertise and investigative resources required for such investigations."

In May, Ottawa police paused officer recruitment for growth hires as it dealt with budget constraints.  A report also stated police needed to hire 28 officers this year, instead of 44 officers, due to a "lower than expected number of retirements as well as the civilianization of five sworn positions."