BL - July - August 2023

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JULY/AUGUST 2023

COVER STORY

A holistic approach to fighting cybercrime

In conversation with the RCMP’s Chris Lynam p. 10

BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES

CASE LAW

Hoarding behaviour: Part 1 p. 18

Grounds for arrest not to be assessed in isolation p. 24

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Contents

10 July/August 2023 Volume 35 Number 4

Features 8 The dangers of after-market police accessories

Columns 4 12 18 20 24 26 30

Editor’s Commentary Q&A Behavioural Sciences Holding the Line Case Law Technology Back of the Book

Departments

How can you avoid them? By Geoffrey Desmoulin.

5 5 6 6 13 29

COVER STORY

10 A holistic approach to fighting cybercrime

In conversation with the RCMP’s Chris Lynam. By Brittani Schroeder.

14 The financial crime ecosystem

News By the numbers Dispatches Calendar Off the Shelf Marketplace

Merging cyber, fraud and money laundering. By Cameron Field.

16 A good life lived after gangs and drugs

Thunder Bay Police introduce innovative Dear Self project to community’s youth. By Brittani Schroeder.

22 A comprehensive approach to wellness

COVER PHOTO: TEROVESALAINEN / ADOBE STOCK

How York Regional Police serves their community by serving their members. Kathleen Griffin.

14 @Blue_LineMag

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30 July/August 2023 | BLUE LINE

3

EDITOR’S COMMENTARY

BY BRITTANI SCHROEDER

Practicing better cyber hygiene

B

ack in the summer months of authentication was put in place, and I was 2022, I created a list of topics able to get back to my work as usual. that I wanted to feature in Blue When I told Chris Lynam of this weird Line in 2023. For this July/Aucoincidence, he urged me—or my IT gust edition, I picked topics like cyberteam—to report it to local law enforcement crime, fraud, technology and innovation. because, even though the hacker was unThese are definitely topics that we’ve successful, he said, “the information could looked at before but are constantly be useful to tracking down who was behind changing in today’s world, so there’s alit and preventing additional attacks.” ways something new to learn and focus While this may seem like an insignificant on. Little did I know back in 2022 event to some, this was the first that I would have a personal “The time that I had been cyberconnection to this topic. Let me information attacked, and I sincerely hope could be tell you the story. it’s the last time. The weekend In early June, I interviewed useful to after this incident occurred, I Chris Lynam of the Royal Can- tracking down changed all of my personal adian Mounted Police (RCMP), who was passwords because I was worwho leads the team at The Na- behind it and ried I might be attacked again. tional Cybercrime Coordination preventing What I took away from this, Centre (NC3). We spoke about additional and what you might as well, is cybercrime, and our conversa- attacks.” that any person at any time can tion ranged from how cyber- – Chris Lynam be the victim of a cybercrime. criminals are evolving, to how Remember, it’s important to his team approaches cybercrime and why practice cyber hygiene, such as regularly everyone should practice cyber hygiene, changing passwords or adding multi-factor including members of law enforcement. authentication, as Lynam describes in (For more from that conversation, you more detail in our cover story. can check out page 10.)

And as always, if there is a topic that you An hour or so after Chris and I ended think we should be talking about, and that our interview, I received a phone call from fellow officers could benefit and learn a member of my company’s human resourfrom, please reach out to me at any time ces team. In this call, she told me that (bschroeder@annexbusienssmedia.com). she’d received an email—from my email Until next time, happy reading and be address—asking that my personal banking well. direct deposit information be changed to something new. She called me because she noticed the language and tone of the email didn’t match my regular style, and she wanted to confirm if it was really me asking for the banking change.

I told her right away that I hadn’t sent that email.

From there, she alerted our IT team of a possible hacking of my account, and they deactivated it while they investigated the matter. Scans of my computer were required, and by the next morning, we learned that the hacker had only been able to send that one email to HR. Needless to say, my passwords were changed, multi-factor

www.BlueLine.ca Reader Service Print and digital subscription inquiries or changes, please contact customer service Angelita Potal Tel: 416-510-5113 Fax: (416) 510-6875 email: apotal@annexbusinessmedia.com Mail: 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400 Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 GROUP PUBLISHER | PAUL GROSSINGER pgrossinger@annexbusinessmedia.com PUBLISHER | ADAM SZPAKOWSKI aszpakowski@annexbusinessmedia.com EDITOR | BRITTANI SCHROEDER bschroeder@annexbusinessmedia.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR EMERGENCY SERVICES GROUP | LAURA AIKEN laiken@annexbusinessmedia.com ACCOUNT MANAGER | JANICE EATON jeaton@annexbusinessmedia.com MEDIA DESIGNER | GRAHAM JEFFREY gjeffrey@annexbusinessmedia.com ACCOUNT COORDINATOR | KATHRYN NYENHUIS knyenhuis@annexbusinessmedia.com AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER BEATA OLECHNOWICZ | (416) 510-5182 bolechnowicz@annexbusinessmedia.com PRESIDENT/COO | SCOTT JAMIESON sjamieson@annexbusinessmedia.com ANNEX BUSINESS MEDIA 111 Gordon Baker Road, Suite 400 Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 Tel. 416-442-5600 • Fax 416-442-2191 Publication Mail Agreement No. 40065710 ISSN 0847-8538 Printed in Canada SUBSCRIPTION RATES Canada — 1 Year $31.50; 2 Year $52.50 plus tax USA — 1 Year $136.50 CAD Occasionally, Blue Line will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above.

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NEWS

PHOTO CREDIT: DANIEL / ADOBE STOCK

ALBERTA

Calgary Police Service partners with Chainalysis

The Calgary Police Service (CPS) has entered into a partnership with Chainalysis to help combat crypto-crime. This is in response to the reported $13.9 million in financial losses to cryptocurrency-related crimes in 2022.

CPS and Chainalysis have a shared goal to create and launch an innovative cybercrime training hub that will assist local and national law enforcement with cryptocurrency related investigations. The CPS Cyber Forensics Unit and Chainalysis were able to create the CPS Blockchain Investigation Team (BIT), which is dedicated to supporting cryptocurrency and blockchain-related investigations.

Cybercrimes can be difficult to fully investigate due to a variety of complex factors, including various international jurisdictions, sophisticated criminal techniques and quickly advancing technology.

their policing choice, Surrey Police Services’ Chief Norm Lipinski said, “Surrey Police Service (SPS) is extremely disappointed by the Surrey City Council decision to transition back to the RCMP, despite the fact that three years’ worth of financial and human investments have gone into building a local, independent police service for Surrey .… I remain unwavering in my belief that SPS is the right decision for Surrey for today and for its bright future.

“Our 400 employees are understandably extremely concerned for their livelihoods.

They left their previous jobs – and in some cases uprooted their families – in good faith, knowing this project had been approved by government to move forward over three years ago. They deserve a resolution once and for all, as do Surrey residents and business owners. It is past time for a clear and safe path forward for Surrey policing.”

QUEBEC

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Surrey Police Service’s Chief Lipinski provides statement on Council Vote

The RCMP is on its way back to being the only police force in Surrey, as city council voted in June to remove its municipal force.

This decision ultimately rejects a provincial government recommendation that came with a $150-million transition offer.

In a statement after city council announced

SPVM, City of Montreal and STM partner to end street harassment The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), along with the City of Montreal and the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) have launched a new campaign, “Street harassment: stop it. Witnesses, take action.”

Their goal is to acknowledge the existence of street harassment, denounce it, make the public aware of their role as potential witnesses, and give people specific things

they can do should they witness an act of street harassment.

The initiative’s newly launched microsite aims to define street harassment, provide tools and support for those who have been targeted, inform witnesses of what to do and offer resources for further action.

Anouk St-Onge of the SPVM urban security and prevention investigations unit shared, “The impact of street harassment should not be underestimated. Unacceptable actions that compromise our well-being in public spaces must not be downplayed or go unmentioned. The police officers of the SPVM are there to help you.”

ONTARIO

Matawa Education and Care Centre dedicated school resource officer program

The Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) and the Matawa Education and Care Centre (MECC) have partnered to launch a new dedicated school resource officer (SRO) program.

The TBPS and MECC began discussions about a possible SRO program in Fall 2022. A program was then developed that would have a single TBPS officer dedicated to the MECC. TBPS was able to develop the core skillset an officer in that position would need to ensure the program’s success.

Through an internal competition, Cst. Larry Baxter was named the successful candidate and became the new MECC school resource officer on March 20. Cst. Baxter is a 21-year veteran of the TBPS and a Matawa member from Fort Hope, Ont. He began his policing career with the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service in 1998.

Funding for the dedicated SRO program is in place until Aug. 31, but both the TBPS and MECC are hopeful the funding will continue and eventually become permanent.

BY THE NUMBERS In April 2023, Statistics Canada released recent data on police-reported gender-related homicides of women and girls in Canada, 2011 to 2021. For more information, please visit www150.statcan.gc.ca.

77 % Since 2011, 77 per cent of all solved homicides committed by a male accused and involving a female victim have been classified as gender-related.

@Blue_LineMag

1,077

Males were accused of perpetrating a gender-related homicide.

35 % Of victims were aged 30 to 49 years.

1 in 5

Of all gender-related homicides of a woman or a girl, 1 in 5 involved an Indigenous woman or girl.

July/August 2023 | BLUE LINE

5

NEWS DISPATCHES It was with heavy hearts that the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) announced the death of 42-year-old Sgt. Eric Mueller.

Sgt. Mueller was shot and killed in the line of duty while attending a disturbance call in Bourget, Ont. He is remembered as a coach, a mentor, and someone who everyone looked up to. OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said Mueller was an exemplary officer who had 21 years of service.

The London Police Services Board has announced the appointment of Thai Truong as London’s next Chief of Police, effective June 1. Chief Truong joins the London Police Service with more than two decades of policing experience, including as a commander in all four branches within York Regional Police: Support, Investigations, Administrative and Operations.

He has also been responsible for leading various units including organized crime and drug enforcement, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, homicide, internet child exploitation and special victims’ units.

London Police Service Supt. Paul Bastien has been appointed to Deputy Chief of Police, effective May 28. Deputy Chief Bastien began his policing career in 1997, as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police posted to the Prince George Detachment in northern British Columbia. In 2001, he returned to Southwestern Ontario to join the London Police Service. In 2006, he was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division, where he would go on to spend almost half of his 25-year career in various capacities, most recently as Detective Inspector in charge of the investigative services branch overseeing the major crime section, sexual assault and child abuse section, general investigations section, and the guns and gangs section.

Insp. Sheryl Sutton has been selected as the new Deputy Chief of the South Simcoe Police Service. Sutton has served in a wide variety of leadership and mentorship roles

6

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

CALENDAR during her 34-year policing career. She was promoted to the rank of Inspector in 2021 and has commanded many diverse areas including patrol operations, support services, and investigative services.

2023 World Police & Fire Games Date: July 28 – Aug. 6, 2023 Location: Winnipeg, Man. wpfg2023.com

The Ontario Provincial Police has appointed Kari Dart to the position of Deputy Commissioner, Culture and Strategy Services. She stated, “I look forward to collaborating with our members and communities in building the OPP’s vision, mission and values through an inclusive, strategic and innovative lens.”

118th CACP Annual Summit Date: Aug. 20 – 22, 2023 Location: Ottawa, Ont. cacp.ca

Insp. Natalie Hiltz is the new Deputy Chief of Police for the Greater Sudbury Police Service (GSPS). She joins the service in her 28th year of policing after proudly serving the Peel Regional Police Service, most recently as Inspector and officer in charge of Community Safety and Well-Being Services. She started with GSPS on June 5.

26th Annual Fraud and AntiCounterfeiting Conference Date: Sep. 19 – 21, 2023 Location: Toronto, Ont. lipkus.law/conference

Mark Flynn has been promoted to the position of Deputy Commissioner of Federal Policing for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The Waterloo Regional Police Services Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Supt. Eugene Fenton and Supt. Jen Davis as the new Deputy Chiefs of Police for the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS). Deputy Chief Fenton is a 22-year-member of the Waterloo Regional Police Service. Throughout his career, he has served in a number of different positions, including frontline patrol, general investigations, homicide, criminal intelligence, professional standards and, most recently, as the superintendent of the investigative services division. Deputy Chief Davis is a 24-year-member of WRPS. Throughout her career, she has served in a variety of areas, including frontline patrol, general investigations, intimate partner

The Safety of Our Cities Conference Date: Sep. 18 – 20, 2023 Location: Edmonton, Alta. safetycitiesconference.ca

InterOp Canada: Enhancing interoperability for public safety Date: Oct. 11, 2023 Location: Online blueline.ca/virtual-events/interop-2023 Find more calendar events online at blueline.ca/events.

violence, homicide, strategic services, human resources, professional standards, training and education, and, most recently, as the superintendent of professional development.

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) has announced that Jim MacSween, Chief of York Regional Police, will serve as the association’s president for 2023-2024. Chief MacSween was sworn in during the OACP’s annual general meeting on June 14. Chief MacSween has been a member of York Regional Police since 1989. Over his 32-year career, he has served in uniform patrol, criminal investigations, the hold-up unit, and community services. As Chief of York Regional Police, he is responsible for 2,300 employees, an operating and capital budget of $390 million, and community safety for 1.2 million citizens.

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GEAR

The dangers of after-market police accessories

P

olice officers face many unexpected challenges and risks each day on the streets, and it’s crucial that they have access to reliable equipment that can help them respond effectively to dynamic and unpredictable situations.

However, the market is flooded with new and innovative products that claim to be tactical and efficient for law enforcement officers.

While many departments do not object to the use of aftermarket products, the case of a recent officer-involved shooting1 highlights the potential risks associated with such untested equipment. In this incident, an officer’s holster failed during a struggle with a suspect, which forced the officers to defend themselves with lethal force. Upon investigation, it was found that the failure was not due to the holster itself, but rather an aftermarket product that had been added by the officer. This paper seeks to examine the incident and explore the importance of carefully choosing equipment to ensure the safety and integrity of both officers and the public they serve.

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BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

The product involved in this incident was a model of a Rapid Transition Interface (RTI) Wheel (since discontinued), which was ripped from an officer’s belt loop during a dynamic struggle. The purpose of the RTI Wheel is to allow the user to quickly reposition the holster to another location and platform without removing the entire belt loop attachment and for this reason, this optional accessory sits between the holster and the belt loop (as shown in Figure 1). The failure which occurred in this incident was due to the malleability of the material located on the posterior side of the RTI, which allowed its threaded inserts to be pulled out from its back plate.

Testing performed by GTD Scientific in the context of an investigation into this incident revealed that the product’s design made it possible for a determined individual to separate the holster from an Officer’s belt with an effort of approximately 75 per cent of an adult male’s maximal pulling effort in less-than-ideal conditions. Although the magnitude of force involved in this failure was signifi-

cant, law enforcement officers are expected to be exposed to determined and noncompliant individuals. Therefore, the possibility of this failure should not have taken the officers involved by surprise.

Had proper testing been performed to identify this shortcoming, the design could have been improved and therefore the death involved in this incident could potentially have been avoided.

This incident highlights a proposed framework for equipment evaluation that dates back to 2010. Rappert, 20102 proposed that all new less-lethal equipment assessments be guided by four specific principals. The suggested principles are generalizable to all new equipment and when doing so can be reduced to three and are highly applicable here. The adopted three principles are found below.

Principle 1: Police should not be left alone to regulate themselves regarding the evaluation of the equipment they use.

While government forces undergo legal scrutiny, typically much of this activity is restricted to a limited number of non-technical individuals internal to the agencies.

This is demonstrated by the wide range of www.BlueLine.ca

PHOTO: MARKUS / ADOBE STOCK

How can you avoid them? By Geoffrey Desmoulin

discretion left to individual officers’ choice of equipment. For example, some departments allow officers to purchase their own equipment, while others assign equipment to their officers. The latter may have prevented the incident described above if implemented appropriately to include field tests and biomechanical assessments, but these policies also have drawbacks, such as limiting officer choice and potential innovation. These draw backs could be overcome by testing various popular equipment choices.

Principle 2: Manufacturers’ statement of the efficacy of equipment should not be taken on faith.

Marketing claims should be examined by governmental and non-governmental agencies, not demonstrated by manufacturers. As can be imagined, statements created by advertising teams are a poor substitute for independent testing. One such claim stated that mace reduced assaults on police officers by as much as 50 per cent, but time and experience proved

BL_GTDScientific_JulyAug23.indd 1 @Blue_LineMag

this “statistic” was grossly overestimated (Faulkner & Danaher, 1997).3 Principle 3: Equipment functional uncertainties should be minimized.

By far the most difficult principle to achieve is the goal of understanding new, untested technology and the complex operational environment in which it will be used. It must remain a goal nonetheless as the example above demonstrates. A few steps to achieve this principle are suggested: A) Follow scientific methodology; B) Avoid obvious risk by exploring material limits of typical equipment use; C) Avoid less obvious risk by exploring non-typical use scenarios; D) Relate all data back to human capabilities; E) Learn from the knowledge produced.

The recent incident involving a holster failure during an officer-involved shooting serves as a stark reminder of the potential

risks associated with aftermarket products.

Agencies should consider in-house biomechanical testing in-line with the above stated principles to ensure that equipment is both safe and effective. Basic biomechanical testing can provide valuable information in a relatively inexpensive and short amount of time. The results of such testing can potentially save the department thousands in litigation costs, avoidable catastrophic injury and uninformed purchasing of poor performing equipment should it fail in the field.

References

1. “Officer Involved Shooting, Suspect broke holster from officer’s duty belt.” San Diego, CA, 2020.

2. Rappert, Brian. “A framework for the assessment of non-lethal weapons.” Medicine, Conflict and Survival, 20:1, 35-54. 2004.

3. Faulkner S, Danaher L. (1997) Controlling Subjects: Realistic Training vs. Magic Bullets. Accessed at www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/1997/feb974.htm.

Geoffrey T. Desmoulin, PhD., RKin., PLEng., is the Principal of GTD Scientific Inc. in North Vancouver whose core competency is Biomechanical Engineering.

He can be reached at gtdesmoulin@gtdscientific.com.

11:54 AM9 July/August 20232023-06-12 | BLUE LINE

COVER STORY

A holistic approach to fighting cybercrime

By Brittani Schroeder

C

hris Lynam has been with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for over a decade, but his public servant days started long before this.

He has worked in several other government departments, including National Defence, Public Safety Canada, as well as the Privy Council Office, where he focused on emergency management, security and intelligence work. He also has a background in the military and has been a reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces for almost 30 years.

“My initial role within the RCMP was in the policy space, and then I started looking at how the RCMP could better address cybercrime,” he says. When the opportunity came for Lynam to lead The National Cybercrime Coordination Centre (NC3), he jumped at the position and has now officially been in the role for four years. The NC3 has a team of approximately 80 people, 10 of whom are police officers, and the rest are civilian members and public servants. It’s a diverse, multi-interdisciplinary team that focuses on intelligence, technical aspects, behaviour analysis and more.

Law enforcement’s role in combatting cybercrime

Cybercrime is a growing challenge for all of society. Victims can be individuals, businesses, or any kind of organization in Canada. Lynam suggests that the types of 10

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

cybercrimes are becoming more complex and impactful than what has been seen previously. “In many cases, what we used to consider a serious cybercrime a few years ago, now we wouldn’t think of them as serious.”

As an example, in 2015, the website AshleyMadison.com was breached, and highly sensitive data about the website’s users was posted online. “At the time, this seemed like the biggest kind of breach, but when you fast forward to now and see the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital getting hit with a ransomware attack right before Christmas that impacted their systems, we see how much the cyber space has changed and evolved throughout the years.”

What causes the biggest challenge for law enforcement is the borderless nature of cybercrime. There may be victims all across Canada, but the perpetrators are often in other countries all over the world. “Finding data or evidence to build your investigation for another jurisdiction is extremely difficult, and we run into a multi-jurisdictional challenge that our traditional policing model wasn’t set up to tackle.”

So what does this mean?

The RCMP’s NC3 was created to try to bring synergy to all the different police services in Canada that are looking at and working on cybercrime. “We wanted to try to move them all in a similar direction, and enable them to carry out investigations with the help of specialized tools and intelligence,

and partnerships. These partnerships reach across the country, of course, but also reach to our neighbours to the south in the U.S., to Europe, to any like-minded country, so that we can have a team approach to going after cybercriminals.”

Lynam knows that there is a lot of work to do but sees that they’ve made significant progress over the last few years. They’re starting to see a lot more operational successes these days.

How the world of cybercrime is changing

Lynam believes the biggest change seen over the last few years is how cybercriminals are continuing to adapt, whether it’s their tactics or the technology they are using. “They’re constantly evolving, at it’s really accelerated over the last four to five years.”

Another big change the NC3 is seeing is the education level of the cybercriminals.

Years ago, to be a cybercriminal, a person often needed to have high-end software development and coding skills, and they needed to understand how the internet really worked. “That model has changed.

These days, cybercrime groups offer what we call ‘cybercrime as a service’. You don’t need to be a cybercriminal, you don’t need to do the coding yourself—you can buy, or lease, an attack. So you could, with minimal technical knowledge, attack another organization very easily, which is why there are more cybercriminals popping up.”

In a recent project called Operation Cookie Monster, officials took down Genesis Market, which was an online marketwww.BlueLine.ca

PHOTO: ILIA/ ADOBE STOCK

A conversation with the RCMP’s Chris Lynam

PT. “We do our best to adopt new technologies, but of course, we don’t have an endless budget for that. We also need to use technology legally and think about privacy considerations. This is where cybercriminals sometimes have a leg up, because they’re not worried about breaking the law,” says Lynam.

His team works hard at building their own tools in-house to better detect what cybercriminals are doing, or better analyze how an attack occurred after it has happened. “It’s really important for us to stay abreast and try to adopt the newest technologies out there, when we can.”

A holistic approach place that offered access to people’s online accounts. “This didn’t just provide people with stolen credentials; it also provided the ability to emulate someone’s device or computer. As an example, the Market would put malware on your computer, gather information, and then sell access to your various online accounts to others. You wouldn’t even know that they’d logged on as you, and could do whatever they liked.”

Lynam explains that law enforcement teams came together to take down the marketplace and seized their infrastructure and domains.

As another step, the NC3 – in partnership with other Canadian law enforcement organizations – went after the users who were purchasing the stolen credentials.

“In Canada, there were many people doing this because it was so easy to do. In this investigation, we worked with 28 different police services across the country to execute nine search warrants and nine arrests. There were over 60 incidents where the police officers went to the home of a suspected user and asked to speak to the person in question. In some cases, they learned that the user had almost no idea what they were getting themselves into,” says Lynam. “In this way, we were able to show them that they really don’t want to get involved in this type of activity, and maybe we diverted them from becoming a hardcore cybercriminal down the road.”

Technology needs are changing

Cybercriminals are amongst the first to adopt new technologies. As an example, some have embraced AI (artificial intelligence) and new platforms such as ChatG@Blue_LineMag

When Blue Line asked Lynam about the success rate of arresting cybercriminals, he responded that, unfortunately, it’s not as simple an answer as you might think.

“We’re trying to move away from the simple metric of success coming from how many criminals get arrested and charged.

Our mandate is to reduce the threat and impact of cybercrime on Canadians, and so we’re using a much more holistic approach to reduce those aspects,” he says.

As Lynam describes, on one end of the spectrum is the preventative work: this is where law enforcement does the diversion work and focuses on the offenders themselves, and they give as much information to potential victims so they can stay safe online. At the other end of the spectrum, there are the apprehensions, the arrests, charging individuals through investigations, etc. But what’s more important is what police are increasingly playing into, which is the disruption space.

“It’s hard to put handcuffs on a cybercriminal located in another country, but we can work with our international partners to disrupt their activities by seizing the infrastructure they use, taking their domains down, helping interdict the flow of money or cryptocurrencies, and help victims get some of their money back.”

Strategic partnerships

Working hand-in-hand with law enforcement agencies is just one piece of the ever-evolving puzzle of fighting cybercrime. Working with the private sector is becoming increasingly important. “Everyone from the private sector and non-governmental sectors, to academia, to legal

firms, to tech giants—we need everyone to work together. We spend a lot of time and effort building those relationships and figuring out ways to collaborate.”

Lynam also sees a reluctance from the public to report to police when they—or their organizations—are victimized. By working with their strategic partners, like incident response or cyber insurance companies, or even lawyers, they can advise victims on why it’s important to report the incident, what role law enforcement plays, and their successes at solving these kinds of crimes.

This leads into another part of the holistic approach to addressing cybercrimes, which is the victim notifications. “What a lot of people don’t know is that our law enforcement partners, particularly international law enforcement partners, sometimes even companies from the private sector, will come to us and say, ‘Hey, we’re seeing a ransomware attack happening against a Canadian victim.

Can you do something about that?’ Once we have this information—whether it comes in the form of an IP address, or we’re given a name—we find this victim and reach out with the help of our partners across the country and tell them what’s happening. They’re told that they’re being attacked, and they need to pull the plug on their devices, and so on.

Sometimes they already know they’re being attacked, but other times, they have no idea,” says Lynam. “At the end of the day, we want the public to have a trusting relationship with us, and we want them to know that the police are out there in the cyber realm trying to help out folks.”

Cyber hygiene

In closing, Lynam shares the importance of cyber hygiene for everyone—including police officers. “Make sure you have those really hard passwords, the multi-factor authentication, and think before you click on any link. If you take that extra two seconds to think ‘Is this real? Does this make sense?’, you could be saving yourself from becoming a victim. We often say that if people took a little bit more time, or reached out to someone before they clicked on something, we’d be able to prevent a lot of cybercrime and online fraud.”

Editor’s note: At the time of this interview, Lynam had recently addressed conference delegates at the 35th Annual Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) event in Montreal, Que.

July/August 2023 | BLUE LINE

11

Q&A Recently, editor Brittani Schroeder spoke with Jim Adamson and Brian Claman of the Canada 911 Ride Foundation about the history of the foundation and how they hope to honour fallen first responders.

Jim Adamson (JA): I was a police officer with the Toronto Police Service for 36 years.

Within two years of beginning my policing career, I knew I wanted to find a way to give back to Canadian communities. It may sound hokey, but I sincerely mean that if I could go out and make a difference in somebody’s life, I thought I’d done a good job. Later in my career, I became an instructor at the Toronto Police College and an instructor in Seneca College’s police foundations program.

I was working at the Toronto Police College on Sept. 11, 2001.

A number of my colleagues and I offered our services, and we were actually declined because there weren’t enough accommodations for all the first responders who had gone to help.

They were so overwhelmed with people coming into the city.

We still wanted to assist in some way, so we created and printed a batch of T-shirts for a fundraiser. On the back of the shirt was a graphic of a flagpole, bearing both the Canadian and American flags; on the front were the NYPD and the New York Port Authority crests. We sold the shirts for $10 each, and within 60 days, we had raised a substantial amount of money. We went down to the Rosewood Ballroom in Manhattan and presented a cheque for $100,000 to the NYPD and Port Authority Police Widows and Orphans Fund.”

Dan Lawrence – President, Markham Outdoor Power and I, along with a few others, went to the United States to join a motorcycle ride to honour those who were lost in the attacks. It 12

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

Q: Can you go into more detail on partnering with The Mikey Network?

was huge a huge ride—we’re talking at least a thousand motorcycles and riders who went from state to state.

Brian Claman (BC): When Jim and Dan returned home, they shared a passion for creating a similar ride in Canada. It would honour fallen first responders who were killed in the line of duty and assist children who have been impacted as a result of a criminal act. This is when the Canada 911 Ride Foundation was created.

Q: Can you tell us about the foundation?

JA: The first Canada 911 ride happened 2006. There has been an annual ride for the past 17 years, and the foundation has been able to raise over $1 million in support of its causes. In the beginning, the ride started out really small. We had some support from the Toronto Police Traffic Services and the Ontario Provincial Police Golden Helmets team led by Chief Supt.

Dave Wall.

Each year during the annual motorcycle ride, the families of the fallen first responders and the victims of crime are invited to the Saturday night

banquet where the fallen are honoured. The ride attracts about 120 riders who participate in the two-day ride over an August weekend in Ontario.

The ride is fully police-escorted, the only one of its kind in Canada. EMS teams typically follow the route in support of the ride as well.

We also get a lot of support from those in the fire service, especially Fire Chief Rick Harrison of the Township of Brock.

Once we tell him about our route for the ride each year, he contacts all the fire services along the route, and they’ll be out there cheering us on, waving at us from the side of the road or on overpasses, and raising Canadian flags on their ladders and trucks. There was one year that our route went from Richmond Hill to Niagara Falls, and there was a firetruck and fire service personnel on every overpass during that ride.

BC: About 10 years ago, we created a second annual ride that takes place in Atlantic Canada.

We’re looking at creating a Western Canada ride, but we’re still looking to find our strategic partners out west. We’d love to start that up.

BC: Early in the creation of the foundation, a strategic partnership with The Mikey Network was put in place. Their mission is to provide public access to defibrillators, AEDs, in public locations so that people’s lives can be saved. For the fallen officers, firefighters and paramedics, and the children who are victims of crime, The Mikey Network and the Canada 911 Ride Foundation donate a Mikey defibrillator. In this way, when we donate it in their name, they may continue to serve their communities after passing.

A recent example of this kind of donation was made in honour of 10-year-old Julianna Kozis, who was killed in a Danforth shooting in Toronto when she was out to dinner with her family.

Q: What will the 2023 ride be like?

BC: This year, the Ontario Canada 911 ride will be dedicated to the police officers who have been killed since Sept.

2022. This has been a terrible year in terms of first responder loss of life. Usually, and thankfully, losses in Canada are about one per year. Now we’ve had more than 10 in the span of less than a year.

When we lose a first responder, we all feel it – it’s an attack on all first responders. This is just one of the many ways that we want to give back. We’re passionate about continuing this for many years to come.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

www.BlueLine.ca

PHOTO: CANADA 911 RIDE FOUNDATION

Q: How did you come to create the foundation?

OFF THE SHELF Cybersecurity in Canada: Operations, Investigations and Protection

By Francis Syms and David J. Smith ISBN: 978-1774623350

Cybersecurity in Canada is an insightful and comprehensive book that delves into the complex world of Canadian cybersecurity.

Authored by renowned experts, it offers a detailed exploration of the challenges, strategies and best practices for safeguarding Canada’s digital landscape. It will greatly benefit officers transitioning to a cybercrime investigations role, or senior officers tasked with leading cybercrime investigation teams.

The book meticulously examines the operational aspects of cybersecurity. It provides a thorough overview of the key considerations for securing digital infrastructure, ranging from network security and vulnerability management to incident response and threat intelligence. The in-depth analysis is supported by real-world case studies and examples that illustrate the practical application of these concepts.

The book also examines investigative aspects of cybersecurity, delving into the techniques and methodologies employed in tracking cybercriminals, conducting digital forensics, and gathering evidence for legal proceedings.

By shedding light on the investigative process, the authors not only highlight the complexities faced by law enforcement agencies, but also

@Blue_LineMag

provide valuable insights for cybersecurity practitioners seeking to understand the broader implications of their work.

The authors discuss the evolving threat landscape and unique challenges faced by Canadian organizations and governments, exploring topics such as risk management, data privacy, and compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

One notable strength of this book is its focus on the Canadian context.

The authors analyze the challenges and opportunities faced by cybersecurity professionals operating within Canada’s legal and regulatory framework by providing specific examples of current legislation, case law, and the judicial authorizations required. They examine the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders, including government agencies, industry partners, and individual citizens.

Cybersecurity in Canada is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in understanding and addressing Canada’s cybersecurity challenges, offering a comprehensive exploration of the operational, investigative, and protective aspects of cybersecurity. As Canada continues to navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape, this will be a valuable guide for those tasked with securing Canada’s critical digital infrastructure.

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- Kevin Paul, Director of Cybersecurity at Cybera, previously Sergeant of the Cybercrime Team for the Calgary Police Service.

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www.haixca.com

July/August 2023 | BLUE LINE

13

2023-07-17 1:10 PM

FRAUD

The financial crime ecosystem Merging cyber, fraud and money laundering

By Cameron Field

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BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

cial crime in the years ahead.

There are a growing number of associations, conferences, symposiums, webinars and law enforcement huddles that deal with fraud, cybercrime and money laundering.

One would need a sizeable budget to attend all these events. It is, however, an encouraging sign that the volume and velocity of these events is growing again and is much needed.

It’s during these huddles we need to find a consensus across law enforcement, government and the private sector that we not only name things the same way but mean the same things when we do so. Establishing common terms and their scope is critical to moving forward in a coordinated way. The first step is examining and reordering the criminal continuum of financial crime. Almost all fraud is now committed in cyber spaces. Maintaining a robust line of sight to all the intelligence this offers is the first step in an ecosystem of financial crime. Once the cyber enablement phase is completed, the actual fraud is committed using these digital channels. The fraud could consist of a number of scams, such as business email compromise, investment fraud, emergency scams or theft of personal information. The funds are transferred through banking channels and placed in the accounts or hands of the criminal actors. But the eco-

system cannot end there. These funds must be laundered through the financial system to be usable and ‘cleaned’. In this final stage, criminal actors go through the three stages of money laundering: placement, layering and integration.

What is essential in this approach is that both law enforcement and the private sector consider financial crime to include the cyber aspect, the actual fraud and the downstream laundering of funds to better understand the criminality and dynamics of the schemes.

With these tactics, both law enforcement and private sector entities can better tailor strategies and responses to financial crime by anticipating all three stages from the outset.

It is entirely beneficial that when we all say financial crime, we immediately think of this criminal ecosystem and think of end-to-end issues and strategies to better our responses.

The last aspect of this philosophy is that of data intelligence. It’s this space law enforcement has a distinct advantage of pooling intelligence from all three phases of the financial crime spectrum. Although law enforcement will limit access to sensitive information by and large cyber, fraud and money laundering are housed in a singular silo. It is in the private sector, and financial institutions in particular, that these three stages oftentimes are housed separately and unsearchable to the different teams.

By considering financial crime as an ecosystem of stages, and by leveraging and pooling data intelligence, both law enforcement and private sector entities are better positioned to combat the crime of the 21st century. The sooner we realize that the vast majority of crime is financially motivated, the better off we’ll be in meeting the challenge.

References 1. World Monetary Fund. “Safeguarding Financial Stability amid High Inflation and Geopolitical Risks.”

Accessed at www.imf.org/en/Publications/GFSR/ Issues/2023/04/11/global-financial-stability-reportapril-2023.

Cameron Field is Vice President at Vidocq Group and a retired member of law enforcement. Contact at cameron.field@vidocqgroup.com.

www.BlueLine.ca

PHOTO: ALEXSKOPJE / ADOBE STOCK

W

hen Louis Freeh was the director of the FBI he said, “The fraudster’s greatest liability is the certainty that the fraud is too clever to be detected.” Fraud as a crime has been around for many millennia, much like other core crimes across the ages. The notion of falsely representing a financial proposition has become such an enduring and resilient crime. Efforts to stop fraud have become more complex to keep up with motivated and well-resourced fraudsters.

Now well into the 2020s, both the police and private sector have sought ways to deal with fraud and all the associated technology and the inevitable downstream laundering of funds. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre reported that in 2022 the Centre received reports of fraud and cybercrime totaling $530 million. What is most concerning is that they estimate only five to 10 per cent of these crimes are ever reported. The difficulty with many approaches is that the focus is segmented to one aspect of a larger process of financial crime.

With the global pandemic we saw a wholesale shift in consumer banking and spending habits and the financial services and retail industries ramping up their ‘digital ready’ posture. Overnight, many customers abandoned in person banking/shopping and moved to digital platforms to do their finances. This caused a shift at financial institutions and retailers so they could better serve their customers but also maintain their ability to monitor financial crime, including money laundering. Tools such as transaction monitoring programs had to be altered to account for rapidly changing consumer banking habits. During this time, law enforcement had to realize their ability to investigate financial crime. The pandemic badly strained their ability to maintain front line policing let alone lesser priorities such as this. All this contributed, in some part, to a drastic increase in reported fraud across Canada and internationally. With geopolitical risks and recession looming1 globally, it is a critical point in time that both law enforcement and the private sector align on a philosophy and on the critical data required to combat finan-

Accident Support Services International Ltd.

The Collision reporTing CenTre program: What’s NeW?

issue 48

police College Using Croms mobile

A

ccident Support Services International Ltd. is proud to offer the Ontario Police College (OPC) use of its Collision Reporting and Occurrence Management System: CROMS Mobile application.

Accident Support Services first launched its new and improved web based mobile application and drawing program in the summer of 2021 and most recently updated the application to accommodate all the Ministry of Transportation Ontario updates.

These were available just in time to train the Ontario Police College instructors in early 2023. The first intake of almost 500 recruits began using the application in February.

“The CROMS application is a modern intuitive application with an easy to use interface.

It is an effective training platform to help prepare our recruits for their future role as investigators in electronic collision reporting. ASSI has been extremely helpful in supporting setup and administration of the application which has allowed the college to efficiently manage large classes in excess of 500 recruits per intake,” said Glen Hawkins, Deputy Director,

ontario police College, 10716 hacienda rd, aylmer, on n5h 2r3

Business Operations of Ontario Police College.

Accident Support Services provides the CROMS Mobile application at no cost to either OPC or the police, as it is funded by the licensed insurers who write automobile insurance. “We are very excited to work with the Ontario Police College and be able to assist our police partners in such an impactful way,” said Steve

Sanderson, President of Accident Support Services Ltd. “We look forward to a long partnership with them.”

Upon graduation when the recruits return to their police agencies, they will have experience in electronic motor vehicle collision reporting. The CROMS Mobile application is currently in use by 32 police agencies across the province of Ontario.

Ottawa Opens 3 Centres, Windsor, Real Time Integrated First Notice Of Loss, On The Road

Bulletin

Windsor Community to Benefit from CRC Program

T

he Windsor Police Service and Accident Support Services International Ltd. (ASSI) have teamed up to launch a new Collision Reporting Centre (CRC) program for citizens in the community. The CRC is located at 2696 Jefferson Blvd. in East Windsor (M-F: 9am-5pm) Citizens are given a QR code that, when scanned, directs them to a website specifically for Windsor that contains all the information necessary to go and report, including the most recent wait times. This happens when an officer responds to the collision scene and determines that it meets the eligibility requirements to go to the CRC. When citizens walk through the door, they are greeted by counselors who help them to complete their self report on assisted kiosks. Accident Support Services trained counsel-

ors help citizens through the kiosk reporting process, citizens have the opportunity to use the keyboard for their statement and touch screen to draw a diagram and complete various drop downs.

Chief Jason Bellaire, Windsor police service, inspector The success of (l-r) Jennifer Crosby, Windsor police service, steve sanderson, the CRC pro- president assi, Barry horrobin, Windsor police service gram has been Jacqueline massi, assi, staff sgt. Duke ing, Windsor police service, sgt. Craig Judson, Windsor police service felt by many, from drivers having a safe and police or the public. informative place to report Since ASSI launched the Coltheir collision to the police ser- lision Reporting Centre Provice having officers freed up gram in 1994, it has grown and evolved into what it is today. for higher priority needs in the We are very excited to be able community including proactive to provide this enhanced serenforcement initiatives.

The vice to the Windsor community centres are funded complete- and are looking forward to our ly by the Insurance Industry, so partnership with the Windsor there is no direct cost to the Police Service.

ASSI’s Real Time Integrated First notice of loss (Fnol)

K

nowing about a clients collision at the earliest opportunity is a key aspect of handing a claim and ensuring a customer has a positive post collision experience. ASSI has the unique opportunity of incorporating real time FNOL into an insurer’s daily claims handling process. Integration between ASSI’s CROMS platform and an insurer claims system allows for real time delivery and notification of a new claim while the customer is still at the Collision Reporting Centre and notification of on scene police investigated collision reports. Real time FNOL will boost claims handling efficiencies, all while assisting in stabilizing claims cost.

insured via text or email.

Take control of the claim at the earliest opportunity, utilize specialty programs and increase penetration of preferred vendors.

Reduced redundancies in attaching collision reports to claims systems, have that done automatically or even have the raw data be transferred to corresponding fields. FNOL is unique to each insurers work flow, our goal is to assist Through the integration there are capabilities in creating a seamless integration to support in place to generate claims number, check claims efficiencies and customer experience. valid policy & next steps communication with As more insurers move towards incorporating AI

Bulletin

C ol li s io n R e p o r t ing C ent re P rog r am E n h an c e d In Ot t aw a!

N

ovember 2, 2022 marked the grand opening of three Ottawa Collision Reporting Centres, a partnership between Accident Support Services and the Ottawa Police Service. This meant a change to the way that collisions were reported within the city. Dispatch began using an updated procedure which allowed additional collisions to be referred to a Collision Reporting Centre. This grants officers to be reallocated to higher priority needs in the community as the program is fully funded by the licensed insurers who write automobile insurance.

Feedback from citizens has been extremely positive. As citizens can report directly to their insurer from the Collision Reporting Centre, they are happy with the expedited claims process.

On the same day, Ottawa Police Service also rolled out the mobile version of Accident Support Service’s Collision Reporting and Occurrence Management System for officers to collect

the on-scene Motor Vehicle Collision Reports. The application is user friendly and requires minimal training as training videos were provided for the service to load on their learning management system. (l-r) inspector Dana reynolds, ottawa police, staff sgt. ian pidcock, Upon approv- ottawa police, superintendent Chris rheaume ottawa police, Kumar siva, Jacqueline massi, assi, harinder Verma, assi, rehan hussain, assi, al from a su- assi, Craig mccauley, assi and steve sanderson, president assi pervisor, Accident Support ottawa east Services submits the collision re- 343 St. Joseph Blvd., Orleans, ON ports to the Ministry of Transpor- (M-F: 9am-5pm) tation in accordance with their ottawa Central validation rules.

474 Elgin Street, Ottawa, ON The three reporting centres are conveniently located at;

ottawa West 211 Huntmar Drive, Stittsville, ON (M-F: 8am-6pm Sat & Sun 9am5pm)

into to their claims process, the interest in ASSI’s FNOL capabilities has grown. ASSI’s first insurer that implemented this technology has been successfully using it for five years.

Multiple insurers, large and small, have chosen to utilize ASSI’s real time FNOL capabilities and reap the benefits of having AI as part of their daily process. Other

(M-F: 10am-6pm) ASSI and the Ottawa Collision reporting Centre teams look forward to working with the Ottawa Police Service to help drivers in their post collision care needs.

insurers have taken note of this and have started the implementation process and are looking forward to having the ability to automate a portion of the claims process.

Feed back from insurers that have this technology in place, is that it has made a huge impact on the intake of claims information and the speed in which they can move on to the adjusting aspect of a claim. All insurers have common goals – customer satisfaction and control the claim at the earliest opportunity in the most efficient way. An integrated First Notice of Loss is an integral step in achieving those goals.

The Collision reporTing CenTre program: What’s NeW?

our Collision reporting Centres, making a Difference

A

s a company we strive to ensure the citizens who come to our collision reporting centre receive excellent customer service, and their experience is a positive one. We love when we receive feedback that our efforts are working.

I was at the South Edmonton Accident Reporting Centre, and I had a wonderful experience! The staff were so wonderful and helpful as I dealt with a fairly complicated situation, and I very much appreciated their incredible service!

- Allstate Insurance Customer Hi there,

On the Road with ASSI 2023!

T

hroughout the year, ASSI regularly participates in a variety of industry events.

The Collision Reporting Centre is a special program that enables the company to engage in various sectors, and whenever we can, we like to support new campaigns and initiatives!

This 2023 season, ASSI will participate in a variety of conferences for the Police, Insurance and Road Safety industries. See below for what conferences we plan on attending and come say hi or arrange a time to connect with us! assi User group spring meeting 2023 o May 17th at Toronto East CRC Canadian association of road safety professionals (Carsp) 2023 Conference o June 4-7 Winnipeg

I just wanted to flag that you have amazing staff at the 211 Huntmar Rd location. I had an accident last week, and they have answered my phone calls several times as I sorted out getting my vehicle towed there, and even called me back when they didn’t pick up quickly enough (I believe it was the manager who called me back). They always answered my questions clearly and gave me accurate information. At the Centre, the staff (particularly Denneka - my spelling may be off!) were kind, courteous, knowledgeable, and professional.

ontario association Chiefs of police (oaCp) 2023 annual Conference o June 11-14 Kingston

Please make sure that this team is recognized for providing amazing customer service. Any organization would be lucky to have this team.

Canadian association of Chiefs of police (CaCp) 2023 annual Conference o August 20-22 Ottawa

Yours truly, Dr. Heather Orpana- Intact Insurance Customer I am writing to you today in regards to my positive and stress-free experience at the collision centre in North York.

The minute I pulled up an employee came out to take pictures of my vehicle and instructed me to proceed forward to park my car. He was very kind and helpful on what to do.

Once I entered the centre I was approached by another employee. She escorted me to one of the kiosks and guided me throughout the report seamlessly. She was very warm, kind and comforting. She made my experience at the reporting centre so positive.

I have to be honest, I was dreading the process and thought I would be there for hours. But with the staff ’s help I was in and out within 30 minutes!!!

A big thank you to the staff, - Allstate Insurance Customer

Canadian Council of motor Transport administrators (CCmTa) 2023 Conference o July 17-19 St. John’s Newfoundland & Labrador

The safety of our Cities Conference 2023 o September 18-20 Edmonton

To learn more about the Collision reporting Centre program or the additional services assi provides please visit our website or call 1-877-895-9111

111 Toryork Drive, Toronto ON M9L 1X9 Ph: (416) 745-3301 Fax: (416) 745-5555 www.accsupport.com Editor: Jennifer Dixon admin@accsupport.com

CRIME PREVENTION

A good life lived after gangs and drugs Thunder Bay Police introduce innovative Dear Self project to community’s youth By Brittani Schroeder

16

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

“The most important thing is to build relationships with the community, so they see us as more than just police.”

– Insp. Derek West

and drugs, or being at risk for recruitment to gangs,” said Insp. West.

In 2016, after the Seven Youth Inquest into the deaths of several Indigenous youth between 2000 and 2011, six recommendations came forth for the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) to act on. One of these was that the TBPS needed to engage the Indigenous youth while they were still in their home communities—before coming to the city for school— and to talk to them about safety planning and what risks to be aware of. “The thought was that if we could build the relationships early, the youth would feel more comfortable reaching out to us in a time of need while they were away from home. We wanted to show that we were people

they could trust,” explained Insp.

West.

The TBPS went to the communities with presentations on safety, gangs and drugs; after doing this for several years, they felt they should revamp how they ran this presentation. “Walking into a classroom with a PowerPoint presentation is not the way to reach or engage the kids,” said Insp. West. The Community Outreach team wanted to find a new way to engage the youth, then COVID-19 happened and that’s when Insp.

West and Sgt. Julie Tilbury decided to pivot funds from the Project Prevent grant to focus on gang prevention tools. The funds for the Project Prevent grant came from the Ministry of Solicitor General – Prowww.BlueLine.ca

PH0TO: THUNDER BAY POLICE SERVICE

I

n Thunder Bay, residents live a uniquely Northwestern Ontario life. They are eight hours away from Sault Ste. Marie and eight hours from Winnipeg. There are a few surrounding small towns and multiple Indigenous communities with many that can only be accessed by air or a lengthy drive. Thunder Bay acts as a service hub for health, education, and everything in between for all of these communities.

“There are several Indigenous-led schools in Thunder Bay to support high school aged youth who are from remote Northern communities. I recall Norma Kejick, the Executive Director of Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, being quoted to say ‘Indigenous youth needed the same quality education and access as non-Indigenous students’, so they established Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School in Thunder Bay. This allowed students access to a high quality education and with similar experiences to students in larger towns and cities,” says Insp. Derek West, Thunder Bay Police Service – Community Outreach.

For some youth who go to school in Thunder Bay and haven’t lived in a “big city” before, it can seem intimidating, lonely and unwelcoming.

There are a lot of new things to be exposed to and this can lead to risky situations or behaviours, including risk of victimization or criminalization. “Initially, there wasn’t a ton of support for the youth staying in boarding homes and frequently we saw these young people experiencing mental health issues, using alcohol

ceeds of Crime (POC) Front-line Policing Grant Program – Guns and Gangs Violence priority. The TBPS was given the funding in 2019 to be used over three years.

Part of Project Prevent specifically looked at creating gang prevention activities, which focused on the reality of what happens when you fall through the cracks due to mental health and addiction issues. “We wanted to inform the youth of what could happen.

We wanted to show that it wasn’t as sexy as TV and film made it out to be, and we wanted them to know that once you’re in, it’s really hard to get out,” said Sgt. Tilbury.

Before the TBPS could begin building the project and resources, the Community Outreach team connected with partners in various sectors to ask what they thought would be the best approach for engaging with the youth. They learned quickly that speaking from personal experience has the best impact on adolescents.

“As an officer, we can lecture on why you shouldn’t join a gang or do drugs, but we’re not speaking from our own experiences. We’ve never lived that life. So, we needed to connect with someone who had,” said Sgt. Tilbury. “We also needed to think outside the box on how to deliver this information, because at times when our school resource officers go into the classrooms, the students keep their hoods on, their heads down and look at their phones.

There’s no participation.”

This is when Sgt. Tilbury reached out to a dynamic speaker, Wali Shah, to speak to the students and share his story. As a spoken word poet, Shah had built a reputation for getting youth engaged. Sgt. Tilbury introduced Shah to some local people with lived experience to hear their stories. He knew this was important to create something special. The TBPS found two people who were willing to open up and share their stories. “It took a while, because a lot of people have their walls up around police officers, but eventually they felt comfortable enough to share and we helped @Blue_LineMag

them see that their stories could help change and impact other people,” said Sgt. Tilbury.

Shah created a spoken word piece called Dear Self that was captured on video. The TBPS also filmed two community members, Kyle Arnold and Jessica Wilson, as they told their stories. Originally, Kyle and Jessica wanted to stay anonymous in the videos, because they didn’t want people to know what they’d been through. But then on the day of shooting, they both said they’d share their story and be the face of the project. “They wanted to help others,” said Sgt. Tilbury.

“I can honestly say this project has changed my life. To the police officers, thank you for teaching me that I cannot paint you all with the same brush. You have taught me so much and one of the main things you taught me was that I can trust you and I’m proud to call you all my friends,” said Kyle Arnold.

Shah also attended several schools and facilitated writing workshops with students. He shared his spoken word piece, and then he asked the youth to do some writing of their own. “Interestingly enough, the kids started writing and after 20 minutes he asked if anyone wanted to share, and it was phenomenal the amount of engagement there was. But what was really special was the amount of support the classmates gave each other when they shared something that no one else really knew about them,” said Sgt. Tilbury.

“Working with TBPS to bring to life the issues and struggles faced by the community, was an opportunity that will always stay with me. Meeting and speaking to thousands of the students in the city and getting a chance to share the Dear Self poem, has been a pleasure for me as an artist,” said Shah. “To be able to shed light on subject matter that is difficult to talk about, to partner with those who have lived experience of drug abuse and gangs, and to use these avenues as a way to deter this behavior in the next generation of young adults in the city: this is what

“We wanted to inform the youth of what could happen. We wanted to show that it wasn’t as sexy as TV and film made it out to be, and we wanted them to know that once you’re in, it’s really hard to get out.”

- Sgt. Julie Tilbury

policing is truly about.”

In total, four videos were created: Wali Shah’s Dear Self poem, Kyle’s story, Jessica’s story, and the ‘behind the scenes’ video. Once they were all ready, the TBPS had an official launch with their community partners. “You have to remember that all of this was happening during COVID-19, so the videos were the best way to get the information out to youth in our community,” said Sgt. Tilbury.

The TBPS also launched an art project for the youth to do any kind of writing, drawing, Tik Tok video, etc. They wanted the teens and children to inspire themselves to do something, make the best choices and live their best life. It was a contest, and there would be a free art exhibit at a Thunder Bay gallery for three weeks. “This is the final chapter of the Dear Self project, but the lessons will live on. We need to find more ways to continue to have these important conversations and give our young people the resources and tools to make good decisions,” said Sgt. Tilbury.

Insp. West and Sgt. Tilbury said they both agree that every three to five years, community outreach teams need to adapt and change how they do things in order to stay on top of trends and keep engaging the community’s youth. They know that they will have about another year where these videos will be most effective, and then they will need to innovate again.

“If I could share advice for other departments who are looking to engage their community, I want to stress the importance of just listening to them,” said Sgt. Tilbury. “You need to hear from people with lived experience, even if they’re people that you have conflict with, because you can learn from them. So, listen more and talk less because you’ll find those nuggets of gold. You also need to be willing to change your approach to things. If you organically lift people up, it will have a ripple effect and make your community healthier.”

July/August 2023 | BLUE LINE

17

BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES

BY PETER COLLINS

Hoarding behaviour: Part 1

A

18

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

Model T with which Langley had been tinkering, 14 pianos (both grand and upright), a gramophone and records, countless bundles of newspapers and magazines, a great deal of garbage and much, much more.

Possessions can have a magical quality for many of us. Hoarding is not the same as collecting; collectors typically acquire possessions in an organized, intentional and targeted fashion. Acquisition of objects in people who hoard is largely impulsive, with little active planning, and is triggered by the sight of an object that could be owned. In contrast to the organization and display of possessions seen in collecting, disorganized clutter is a hallmark of hoarding disorder.

Pathological hoarding is not uncommon in the general population. It’s estimated that clinically significant hoarding occurs in 2.6 per cent of the population with higher rates for people over 60 years old and people with other psychiatric diagnoses, especially anxiety and depression.

Most individuals with hoarding disorder display the trait of excessive acquisition. The most frequent form of acquisition is excessive buying, followed by acquisition of free items (such as leaflets or items discarded by others). Stealing is less common.

Hoarding occurs with equal frequency in men and women. Hoarding behaviour can begin relatively early in life and increases in severity with each decade. The severity of hoarding ranges from mild to life-threatening. Some research has indicated that hoarding is associated with more work interruption than most other psychiatric disorders. In some instances, hoarding has been associated with fire-related deaths, and people have lost custody of children because of the

condition of the home.

The American Psychiatric Association’s 5th Edition Text Revision diagnostic criteria for hoarding disorder is: 1. Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value.

2. This difficulty is due to a perceived need to save the items and the distress associated with discarding them.

3. The difficulty of discarding possessions results in the accumulation of possessions that will congest and clutter active living areas and will substantially compromise their intended use. If living areas are uncluttered, it is only because of the interventions of third parties (e.g., family members, cleaners, or the authorities.)

4. The hoarding causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (including maintaining a safe environment for self and others).

5. The hoarding is not attributable to another medical condition.

6. The hoarding is not better explained by the symptoms of another mental disorder.

Now that we have presented a basic understanding of what hoarding behaviour is, the next column will address how police can respond to individuals who display this behaviour.

For a full list of references, please visit www.blueline.ca/hoarding-behaviour-part-1/ Peter Collins is the operational forensic psychiatrist with the Ontario Provincial Police’s Criminal Behaviour Analysis Section. He is also a member of the crisis/ hostage negotiation team of the Toronto Police Service Emergency Task Force. Dr. Collins’ opinions are his own.

Contact him at peter.collins@utoronto.ca.

www.BlueLine.ca

PHOTO: TREKANDPHOTO / ADOBE STOCK

s a social history buff, I knew about hoarding behaviour long before I became a physician. In junior high, I read an account about the Collyer brothers: they were a local legend in New York City, and were subject to a newspaper story in 1938 that appeared in the New York World-Telegram titled “The Hermits of Harlem”. After the story appeared, the brother’s run-down brownstone became a source of urban myths; the house was subject to gawkers and the taunting of neighbourhood kids from outside the residence. This only served to increase their shared paranoia.

The Columbia University trained bothers lived with their mother and inherited the house when she died in 1929. Homer, the older of the two, was a lawyer. Langley, the younger brother, was an engineer and a talented concert pianist. When Homer lost his sight, Langley left his profession to care for him. Over the years, Langley would only venture out at night to purchase food for the two of them or bring back items that were of interest to him.

In March 1947, the police received an anonymous call stating there was a dead body in the residence. After great difficulty they entered the house. The front entrance was impassable due to unsteady towers of newspapers and police had to enter through a second-floor window. The emaciated body of Homer was discovered, and the medical examiner theorized that Homer had been dead for less than a day. Langley was nowhere to be found. There were reported sightings of Langley in other states, but one of the workers hired to clean out the house found Langley’s rat-chewed body only three metres from where Homer had been found two weeks earlier. The medical examiner theorized that Langley died a month earlier, suffocated in a tunnel of newspapers and other debris after accidently setting off one of his booby-traps.

Police and workmen removed approximately 120 tons of items from the Collyer brownstone. This included baby carriages, a doll carriage, rusted bicycles, old food, potato peelers, a collection of guns, glass chandeliers, bowling balls, camera equipment, the folding top of a horse-drawn carriage, a canoe, rusty bed springs, the kerosene stove, more than 25,000 books, human organs pickled in jars, eight live cats, the chassis of the old

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July/August 2023 | BLUE LINE

19

HOLDING THE LINE

BY MICHELLE VINCENT

Addressing the unique needs of public safety personnel and their families

20

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

perative that the resources they all require and need to be well reduce organizational liability, and contribute to their ability to be present and available with minimal barriers.

In my columns, have highlighted several organizations that have and continue to contribute to the provision of these necessary mental health resources. What if there was an organization with a mission to support mental wellness with first responders, PSP, military and their families exclusively with a unique combination of evidence-based modalities, creating programming that feels safe and inclusive? An organization with a variety of partnerships and facilitators in occupationally/organizationally/culturally-specific programs such as Edmonton Police Service’s Reintegration After Critical Incident and Long-Term Leave program, the Writers Collective of Canada program, or the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy.

Having a team comprised of a clinical supervising psychologist, a military peer, various peers from PSP, a PSP-focused well-published researcher, a financial specialist and many more specialized contributors might ensure our PSP/military and their families receive a professional approach to mental wellness programming. The reason this is crucial to the understanding of the foundation of such an organization, as well as its operations, is the trust, safety and clarity of the true needs this population has for mental wellness resources to be most effective.

Acquiring a property that has three homes

on an agricultural oasis would allow for each space to offer a unique opportunity for mental wellness. The first building could deliver various residential programming, including the challenges of addiction with mental wellness. The second might be a safe space for members experiencing a critical incident/crisis where light options of programming would be available. The third could be for families of our PSP/military for programming specific to their needs, as well as a retreat when they need that safe space.

Imagine if all these opportunities, when available, were offered free of charge and exclusive to our PSP/military and their families. This could change the way mental wellness is delivered for this population.

Working together, learning from and working with aligned resources, to provide the best evidence-based experiences for our members in a natural environment is a unique opportunity to change up how we deliver wellness resources to our PSP/military and their families. Ensuring program spots are available would likely depend on donations, supportive fundraisers and, perhaps, a tri-funded model supported by our organizational associations/unions, private/ corporate funding and government grants.

Let’s change how we deliver mental wellness programming for PSP. Michelle Vincent PhD/MACP is a retired officer and the founder of The Haven, Ontario’s first non-profit, inpatient treatment centre exclusive to first responders and uniform personnel. Contact her at michelle.vincent@ thehaven.cloud.

www.BlueLine.ca

PHOTO: HALFPOINT / ADOBE STOCK

A

s first responders, we are all aware of the sobering statistics on our vulnerability towards serious mental health issues and operational stress injuries. From depression and anxiety to post-traumatic stress symptoms/injuries, the likelihood that we will screen positive for one of these is 45 per cent, according to Carleton et al., (2022).

There are researchers conducting incredibly complex and conceptualized research with our public safety personnel (PSP) that is focused on the unique stressors our group experiences that impact our ability to process the challenging occupational stressors we face.

In a past article, I shared findings from Dr. Nick Carleton’s research (2021) on the organizational stressors identified as having an impact on mental health, such as inconsistent leadership styles, short staffing, workplace culture experienced as not being supportive, public scrutiny and shift work.

While research starts the process of informing a potential solution, conceptualizing research into potentially effective resources is what our desired outcome is.

There are many resources available for PSP and yet accessibility, suitability and the overall objective/fit of each resource are important considerations prior to committing. Programming that explores organizational dynamics in the PSP world, as well as an understanding of the neurological experience, provides a comprehensive opportunity to discover tools that might support healthy processing and reframing of one’s own thoughts and those relationships around us.

The focus has been and continues to be on the traumatic incidents that we as PSP experience when we come for mental health resources. Shifting our focus and supporting a naturally evolving topic of discussion and training on the organizational impact on our mental health is a great opportunity to change things up. With that in mind, we also want to ensure that we recognize the great work so many of our leaders in the first responder community tirelessly commit to as they support the moving parameters of community needs/requests, budgetary constraints and the overall wellbeing of the organizational team. While leaders within organizations continue their work, it’s im-

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WELLNESS

How York Regional Police serves their community by serving their members

By Kathleen Griffin

T

he physical and mental trauma that first responders and support staff can experience on the job can be obvious or invisible, a one-time event or a lingering affliction. It can manifest in unexpected physical or emotional symptoms that affect every facet of that individual’s life. Attempts to ignore the issue often only makes things worse and the reluctance felt by some to seek help can lead to a crippling stasis – where nothing improves and the situation seems hopeless.

As the wellness of members and their families continues to be in sharp focus, police organizations must now take the lead to ensure that the internal response keeps pace with the needs of the membership, particularly in offering mental health supports. The frequency with which our members are confronted with operational stress reinforces the organization’s duty to have comprehensive and effective systems in place to ensure that members do not struggle in silence.

A healthy employee

York Regional Police committed to investing in the wellness of our members in 2016, stepping away from the old-fashioned thinking that the organizational responsibility for employee wellness was primarily to mitigate liability.

A healthy employee, in body, mind and spirit, is a more compassionate and respectful responder. A healthy employee can better manage their personal and professional responsibilities. We believe that investing in 22

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

the well-being of our members is an investment in the well-being of our community.

Our holistic approach integrates training, easily accessible internal support and community partnerships with care providers into an overall safety net for all members.

This approach recognizes that all members must be provided with tools to help combat stigma so they can respond to mental health issues in themselves and others. It underscores the fact that effective support and recovery is built on confidentiality, accessibility and most importantly, trust in both.

But this course, and the commitment to our members’ overall health, did not happen overnight. A decade ago, we were like many police services at that time, relying almost exclusively on local Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) teams to help our members and other first responders in fire and paramedic services, mitigate the effects associated with unusual, stressful events.

A comprehensive approach

In 2015, the In the Line of Duty report was released. Prepared by the Ontario Ombudsman for the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the report studied the mental health effects of operational stress injury on OPP officers.

The recommendations that resulted were not only helpful for the provincial police agency but were applicable to all police services.

The Safeguard Program was running then

at YRP, in which once a year, an external psychologist would assess members working in high-stress environments, such as Internet Child Exploitation, Special Victims, Homicide, Human Trafficking and Communications. But it was focused on risk management – could the member continue to perform in the role or not? It was far less focused on supporting officers doing distressing, often traumatic, work and that was a gap.

By 2016, it was clear a more comprehensive approach was needed. A full-time psychologist, Dr. Kyle Handley, was hired to develop an organization-wide wellness strategy and co-ordinate existing, albeit disjointed, services into a cohesive, forward-looking plan.

The first years, 2016 to 2020, were dedicated to re-organizing services under one umbrella and shifting services that existed mostly to mitigate organizational risk, to being truly member focused.

“At the root of the strategy’s principles are the four pillars of optimum health – biological, psychological, social and spiritual – with services and supports available to address each one of these areas,” said Dr. Handley. “Each area is essential to a member’s overall sense of wellness and when addressed collectively, can help members build strong, resilient careers, lifestyles, families and communities.”

Building on those roots, we are now implementing the follow-up Wellness Strategy 2020 to 2025.

The wellness centre

Last fall, in an unprecedented collaboration between YRP and the York Regional Police Association, we celebrated the opening of a permanent, 6,600-squarefoot Wellness Centre. Offering services to members, families and retirees, including education and support related to the four wellness pillars.

The centre facilitated the expansion of the Psychological Health Unit, which now includes two psychologists, two social workers www.BlueLine.ca

PHOTO: MAREKPHOTODESIGN.COM / ADOBE STOCK

A comprehensive approach to wellness

and two psychotherapists, ensuring that all members have access to these supports whenever they may need them. In addition, the centre will soon provide members with a confidential and easily accessible space to receive services such as chiropractic care, massage, peer support, chaplaincy and fitness and nutrition planning.

The centre also retains an external substance-use management service which offers confidential and anonymous guidance to manage substance use for members and their families.

Another win for YRP has been the Embedded Provider Program, where a wellness team representing each of the four pillars works on site from each district station, including a peer supporter, mental health clinician, chaplain and biological health representative, allowing members timely access to services and the opportunity to build personal relationships. This program has resulted in a significant reduction of the stigma associated with seeking help, an in-

crease in awareness of what services are available and has increased the utilization of those services across the organization.

The most recent element introduced to normalize the need for help, raise awareness of the four pillars and provide details on available programs is the Wellness First app. The completely confidential app was developed in partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University specifically for YRP members, retirees and their families and provides tailored support. It calculates members’ areas of need based on answers to a series of questions. It then connects the member to appropriate resources, including in-house peer support, fitness and nutrition information and internal and external contacts offering professional assistance.

Now, the focus of the Wellness Bureau is growth and innovation. We are raising awareness of the available programs and services, including those offered by providers in our diverse communities. We’re re-

ducing stigma through the increased use and knowledge of available supports and we’re continuing to offer targeted care that is easy to navigate through the organizational system. Simplifying access to information about existing resources, streamlining the paperwork and documentation required and increasing messaging around these topics, will allow members to better understand how to engage needed support with minimal red tape and delay.

“An organization is, above all, its people.

In order to for our people and our community to thrive, we need members who are mentally and physically healthy,” said YRP Chief Jim MacSween. “If we proactively invest in our people, show them compassion and offer assistance when needed, we will ensure our members are resilient and ready to serve the community at their best.”

Kathleen Griffin has been the Senior Manager of Corporate Communications for York Regional Police for almost 20 years.

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12:04 PM July/August 20232023-07-12 | BLUE LINE 23

CASE LAW

BY MIKE NOVAKOWSKI

W

hen assessing whether a police officer has met the reasonable grounds threshold for a lawful arrest, is important for a trial judge to consider the contextual background of the officer’s investigation and not look at each individual fact in a piecemeal fashion. In R. v. Simmons, 2023 PECA 4 a police officer launched an investigation into suspected drug trafficking by a man named for drug offences. Based on all of the inforRyan Gallant. The officer relied upon infor- mation, the officer believed Gallant’s mobile mation from four confidential informers phone was in Simmons’ Jeep and the vehicle (including two handled by the officer), would follow the established pattern of surveillance and database checks. The fol- making a relatively quick trip to Moncton, lowing month a tracking warrant was ob- reload with methamphetamine and then tained which enabled the police to electron- return to P.E.I. After Simmons’ Jeep reically track Gallant’s mobile phone. turned from New Brunswick via the ConfedConfidential information indicated Gallant eration Bridge and passed through a COVID would travel from P.E.I. to New Brunswick checkpoint, Simmons (driver) and Gallant to obtain methamphetamine for resale. On (passenger) were arrested and the vehicle two separate days, Gallant’s phone was was searched incidental to arrest. Drugs, tracked as it travelled from Summerside, including substantial quantities of methamP.E.I., to Moncton, N.B., and back. On one phetamine and cocaine, were found.

At trial in P.E.I. Provincial Court, Simmons day, the phone remained in the Moncton argued his Charter rights under s. 8 area for about an hour and a half – search and seizure – and s. 9 – before returning to P.E.I. while it “It is not arbitrary detention – had been stayed in New Brunswick on the appropriate breached. The trial judge disagreed, other day for only about 45 min- to ‘silo’ however. He found the arresting utes. This tracking information, information officer had the necessary subjectalong with video surveillance into ive and objective grounds to arrest along the route, indicated that individual both men. As a result, there were separately owned vehicles driven pieces.” no Charter breaches and Simmons by two other individuals accom- – Chief was found guilty on all charges, panied Gallant’s mobile phone to Justice including possessing methamNew Brunswick. Source informa- Gormley phetamine and cocaine for the tion received at this time corroborated the officer’s belief that Gallant was purpose of trafficking.

Simmons then appealed his convictions travelling to New Brunswick to obtain drugs for sale. COVID-19 restrictions on inter- to a three-judge panel of the P.E.I. Court of provincial travel at the time also supported Appeal arguing, in part, that the police the officer’s belief that these two short trips lacked the requisite reasonable grounds to to Moncton were consistent with drug traf- arrest him. ficking activity.

The officer then received source informa- Was the arrest lawful? tion that Gallant would soon be travelling A warrantless arrest under s. 495(1) of the to New Brunswick to reload with metham- Criminal Code requires both subjective and phetamine. At about the same time the objective grounds. The arresting officer must mobile phone was tracked leaving P.E.I. and subjectively believe they have the grounds for travelling on the Confederation Bridge to arrest, and those grounds must be justifiable New Brunswick, a Jeep owned and regis- from an objective viewpoint. And when a trial tered to the accused Thane Simmons was judge assesses the presence of objective captured on video surveillance crossing the reasonable grounds, they must do so based Confederation Bridge. The officer was on the information known to the police offiaware Simmons had been involved in drug cer at the time of the arrest. “Contemporantrafficking in the past and had a prior record eity is required,” said Chief Justice Gormley.

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BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

“It is important to refrain from drifting forward in time to consider any evidence that arises after the arrest. The trial judge must be careful to only consider the evidence the officers had at the time of the arrest.”

Even though most of the evidence known to the officer in this case, including the confidential source information, related to Gallant as the primary target in the investigation, the Appeal Court found the objective reasonableness of the officer’s decision to arrest Simmons had not been undermined by the fact his involvement only came to light shortly before the vehicle was stopped and the arrests made. Gormley stated: It is not appropriate to “silo” information into individual pieces. The appropriate approach is to review the facts known to the officer at the time of arrest to determine if the factual context as a whole seen through the eyes of a reasonable person with the same knowledge and experience as the officer provide the requisite objective grounds to effect the arrest.

Even though Mr. Simmons appeared in the investigation relatively late, this is not a situation of a random traffic stop that progresses to a search of a vehicle. Neither is it a case of a police officer, with no contextual background, targeting unknown individuals involved in suspicious activity.

This case is indicative of an incremental investigation of a specific targeted person who leads the police to a related person. Mr. Simmons was accompanied by Mr. Gallant along with Mr. Gallant’s mobile phone which was being actively being monitored by the police when they both travelled to New Brunswick for a relatively short visit which was consistent with an established pattern of behaviour by Mr. Gallant. This information is supported by recent confidential human source information. It is also at a time when travel restrictions had been imposed on individuals crossing provincial boundaries. Considered as a whole, the facts known by [the officer] supported the arrest of both Mr. Gallant and Mr. Simmons.

The trial judge made no error in concluding that Simmon’s arrest was lawful and his appeal was dismissed.

Mike Novakowski is Blue Line’s case law columnist.

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TECHNOLOGY

BY BRITTANI SCHROEDER AND LINDSEY HOEMSEN

R

eporting a crime can be a stressful experience. Combine that with the potential of an extended wait time, and the experience can be downright frustrating.

The Regina Police Service (RPS) have provided a new service delivery approach that cuts down wait times, offers more options to those reporting crimes and creates meaningful work opportunities for officers requiring accommodation due to injury or otherwise. It’s called the Virtual Police Reporting System (VPRS).

The idea

In the early part of 2022, S/Sgt. Pierre Beauchesne transitioned to RPS Central Operations, which is within the Support Services Div26

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

If we truly believe in policing by consent, perhaps it is time to give back to the community something tangible that will be appreciated and evoke enormous good will.

ision. This division includes the detention centre, the inquiry desk unit, front line support unit (FLSU), and the court liaison officer. The FLSU is a unit where police officers who, for example, may have been injured while executing their duties, are accommodated temporarily or long term. These members with diverse abilities were seldom able to interact directly with the public due to their limitations.

In March/April 2022, S/Sgt. Beauchesne continually observed long wait times at the inquiry desk, due to the shortage of police resources.

“Some complainants could wait over two hours to speak to an investigator. Due to the long wait times to see an inquiry desk member, in concert with wanting to engage those members with diverse abilities, we began

looking at ways to deploy those members to the inquiry desk. We soon learned that there were legal implications which restricted the ability to have a member work at the inquiry desk who could not be immediately engaged in a situation where a use-of-force would be required,” said S/Sgt. Beauchesne.

Soon, the central operations team started brainstorming ways to engage members of the FLSU at the front desk, with the hopeful result of providing more meaningful work for the members in that unit and decreasing the wait times for citizens.

“Originally, we envisioned a Zoom or Teams type of meeting, between a complainant in the lobby awaiting service and a police officer. I presented this to our executive committee, whom were very supportive. I www.BlueLine.ca

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consulted with Sgt. Jessica Gawley (NCO in charge of both the FLSU and the inquiry desk) and we began putting this concept in motion. Sgt. Gawley was able to identify what crime classes would be appropriate for this type of reporting, and Matthew Carleton and the information services team became heavily engaged in building this platform in the lobby,” he continued.

The challenges

The anticipated challenges were in the realm of technology and procedure.

In terms of technology, the thought was that while using Zoom or Teams, a complainant could easily sit and talk to an officer from a computer. However, it didn’t turn out at simple

as that. “Our information technology team had to work through issues, including proper audio for the client while ensuring their privacy; how to guarantee the victim’s support person can communicate in concert with the victim—we tried both microphones, speakers and headsets; controlling the ambient environment sounds from the busy lobby area, the recording of a verbal statement, if required; the connectivity of the software, etc.,” said S/Sgt. Beauchesne.

When identifying crime classes that would be appropriate for the VRPS, the team began by referring only specific types of frauds and scams. “We understand not every crime class is appropriate to serve through this platform, and we recognized

this from the onset,” he said. In situations where the victim had documents that could be deemed evidentiary, the RPS provided a lock-box stationed on the VPRS desk that the complainant could place the documents in and secure them. The documents would be retrieved and exhibited a short time after.

The team also installed a small scanner on the desk for situations where the victim had a written statement or was required to author a written statement; they could simply place the statement page(s) in the scanner feeder and the VPRS investigator could control the scanner remotely and activate it.

The scanned documents would then be immediately accessible to the VPRS members’ computer for review and follow-up questions.

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The conceptualization phase began in April 2022, and the initiative officially launched on June 1, 2022. The system was created using data from the service’s new ‘Waitwell’ queue management system, which had been implemented a few months prior. Through the data analytics, RPS was able to identify specific types of complaints that took a significant amount of time to report to an inquiry officer, such as internet frauds and phone scams.

From June 2022 to Aug. 31, 2022, the VPRS served 84 of 175 complainants who were victim to online frauds and telephone scams; the remainder reported in-person to an Inquiry Officer.

The average time for a person to report their incident in detail to a police officer was just over one hour. This freed up roughly 93 hours for others needing to speak with an officer and re-

sulted in shorter wait times.

The success of VPRS led to the expansion of the service in Oct. 2022 to include eight additional crime classes: online frauds, phone scams, hit and runs, certain motor vehicle accidents, neighbourhood disputes, mental health warrants, youth drug detoxification warrants, and theft of autos.

In Jan. 2023, the VPRS expanded further to providing members of the public the ability to book an appointment online, and provide their complaint of frauds, scams and motor vehicle accidents to a VPRS investigator. Members of the public are now able to report specific crimes to a police officer from the comfort of their home through platforms such as Facetime, Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, etc.

In its first year (June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023), the VPRS Unit has taken 416 criminal complaints virtually through the platform. This is approximately 535 hours serving complainants virtually.

It’s often said that technology takes away from ‘the experience’. In this case, the Regina Police Service can say, without a doubt, they are providing a better overall customer experience for those reporting crimes at their inquiry desk.

The appointment option is enabling complainants to report specific crimes directly to a police officer from the comfort of their home or office, while making it very convenient. It also continues to provide officers with accommodations and diverse abilities the opportunity to interact with the public and do what they do best: listen to our community and help bring closure to victims of crime.

Lindsey Hoemsen is the Regina Police Service (RPS) Public Information and Communications Manager. Hoemsen started with RPS in Sept. 2020 and was recently promoted to Manager of Public Information and Communications.

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BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

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BACK OF THE BOOK

BY TOM WETZEL

I

nstead of the iconic saying, “Houston, we have a problem,” we may want to start saying “North America, we have a problem” regarding the police recruitment and retention predicament we are currently experiencing.

When I took the police entrance test over 35 years ago, there were approximately 400 people who participated. From that large group, only three were selected for positions. As a chief directly involved in our last lateral exam, which allowed police officers from other departments to apply at top pay instead of starting at a probationary rate, only five initially applied. From that group, three were selected for positions. This is extremely low turnout for a job that has never paid better and has an excellent retirement package.

Our department experienced what nearly all police agencies are going through, which is a frightening lack of interest. This is an unquestionable crisis and if it worsens, we can expect a radical reduction in the services we have grown accustomed to, as well as less security overall.

One of the most important tasks of a police officer is gathering information from a complaint and writing a police report. Report writing for matters small and large is the meat and potatoes for so much of what we do. Our communities should get ready to become personal report writers for small issues like thefts or motor vehicle accidents with our current recruitment rates. They may end up being handed self-reporting forms, which will essentially be for documentation purposes only because no officer will have time to do any meaningful follow-up of their complaint, regardless of how important it is to them personally. Worse yet, members of our communities may need to drive to the police station to get the form as no cop will be available to deliver it.

The staffing of police departments involves manpower minimums that 30

BLUE LINE | July/August 2023

Less cops per shift equals less service and safety. It’s not a complicated formula.

should be based on call volume and city-specific needs. If a department has determined that a minimum of 20 police officers is necessary for a 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, 20 officers will be scheduled, even if it involves forced overtime or denial of earned vacation time. Overtime pay is a nice way for a cop to make some extra money, but there is a threshold where it begins to burn an officer out physically and mentally, and resentment sets in as they are forced to miss their children’s birthday parties and family holiday dinners. Eventually, departments will have little choice but to reduce these manpower minimums based on hard numbers as well as officer wellness needs. Less cops per shift equals less service and safety. It’s not a complicated formula.

Safety will also be adversely affected by officers’ apprehensions to engage suspects due to an outrageous expectation of perfection involving use-of-force decisions. Keep in mind that these decisions are made in tense, dangerous and rapidly evolving situations and sometimes the choices are decided in the blink of an eye. In the past, society has given the benefit

of the doubt to their paid guardians when they used force as they were the ones facing the danger. Increasingly, to some, it may feel like the suspect is given the benefit of the doubt in a perverse attempt to make up for the past sins of other officers who misused force.

What cops fear today is not just getting killed by a bad guy, but going to jail for a split-second decision that was created by a law breaker. One thing you can almost always count on is the offender’s non-compliance to begin with, but today, the suspect’s behavior is just an afterthought. So, would you want to sign up to be a cop in this type of environment? Novelties like signing bonuses will not change this reality.

This recruitment crisis needs to be addressed head on and as soon as possible. On our end, we need to do a much better job of branding and marketing our time-honoured profession. We have allowed others to create a false narrative about policing that was built on inflammatory irrational rhetoric, that allowed ideas like defunding the police to take hold in some places. The damage that was done from this had a detrimental effect on recruitment and grossly shrunk our hiring pool. It may take years to fix, if not longer. Although we are playing catch up, we have our honour along with empirical evidence and a mountain of good will to reshape the narrative about policing with facts. We need to better educate those we serve so they understand the crisis we are in and look for solutions to address it. They need to realize that it won’t be easy, and it won’t be cheap for them. If not, our society as a whole will be much worse for it. Crime will thrive and lives will be lost. This too is not a complicated formula.

Tom Wetzel is the recently retired chief of police in Richmond Heights, Ohio, and a former SWAT commander. He is also a certified law enforcement executive, adjunct professor in community policing and internationally published author on police topics.

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