Concerns Remain Over Ontario Decision to Remove Post-Secondary Requirement for Police Cadets

Ontario Premier Doug Ford answers questions during a press conference at the Toronto Police College in Etobicoke, Ont., on April 25, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Tijana Martin)

The decision by Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government to remove the requirement of a university degree to become a police officer is being met with skepticism by those who say a degree makes for better officers.

The stated reason for the change was to get more officers on the streets to address an increase in auto thefts, assaults, break-and-enters, and random acts of violence. Matt Yeager, a University of Western Ontario professor emeritus in criminology with 51 years’ experience, says there is a need for more officers but doubts that lowering requirements is the right solution.

“Agencies are having difficulty recruiting. There’s all kinds of reasons for it. Certainly these incidents that we’ve had, these major situations, whether they are policing the folks that brought Ottawa to standstill, or whether it’s Black Lives Matter, whether it’s the situation with aboriginal Canadians who are over-policed, all of that contributes to a very difficult situation,” Yeager said in an interview.

“What is probably required is to go in the opposite direction, which is to require more training, more experience, even better pay, and also to be very cognizant of the difficulties of police work.”

Yeager said police are often put in situations that lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, such as stabbings, shootings, deaths, and crimes against children. He is concerned that younger officers with less training could have “problematic” and “very troublesome” results.

“Imagine a veteran police officer now is going to be matched with an 18-year-old just out of the Aylmer police program,” he said.

“The ATL [attempt-to-locate crime suspect] is fully armed with a bulletproof vest and everything. And he’s got to provide on-the-job training to this young person. ... Just think about that. There’s just going to be so many opportunities for a young person not to do well.”

At the press conference announcing the change, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said the average cadet is in their late ’20s and did not indicate an intention to change that.

“I don’t think bringing an arts degree is necessarily the criteria to go to Ontario Police College and to be a cadet,” he said.

“I think it’s our whole life experience that we bring to our new career, and I’m really excited that removing the barrier of a university of or college degree will encourage people who have these life experiences to come forward.”

More Education Recommended, Not Less

The province announced that the Ontario Police College will train 140 new recruits in 2023 and another 420 by the end of 2024. The 470 cadets who just graduated from the 66-day basic constable training will have their tuition reimbursed, as will students for the next three years, all at the cost of about $20 million.

The program will be reassessed after three years.

Yeager supports the province covering the tuition, about $15,000 a year. However, he said most police services don’t want the post-secondary requirement to be removed, nor did those who studied various police forces.

“If you look at the Mass Casualty [Commission] report out of Nova Scotia, if you look at the Baroness Casey [Review] report out of the London Metropolitan Police [Service] in London, both of those reports go in the complete opposite direction—more training and better educated and older recruits,” Yeager said.

Other reports have made similar suggestions.

In 2007, the Brown Task Force report, quoted in the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) report in its section on policing, stated: “Historically, the RCMP has recruited very young men and women out of high school. For many of them, their six months of initial training at the Depot is the only post-secondary education they will receive. …Notwithstanding the enormous contributions that have been made by members who joined the Force on this basis, we do not believe that this will sustain the Force in what is an increasingly knowledge-based environment.”

The Depot refers to the RCMP Academy in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Similarly, the 2020 Michel Bastarache report, which addressed sexual harassment of women in the RCMP, recommended that RCMP recruits be at least 23 years old and have at least two years of post-secondary education before becoming a cadet.

The MCC report recommended that Canada establish national standards for a common, university-based approach to police education and that the RCMP training Depot be closed by 2032.

Value of Life Experience

John Sewell, who was Toronto’s mayor from 1978 to 1980, is author of the acclaimed 2021 book “Crisis in Canada’s Policing.” He says that more life experience and education are valuable given what police officers have to face.

“What we need in police officers are people who, in fact, are very, very experienced with life, who really understand how things work. The problem with lowering the requirements for police officers, you’re getting people who don’t have a lot of life experience. And they’re probably not going to do things that are very smart,” Sewell said.

“If you look at all the problems that police have, a lot of them relate to the fact that they aren’t dealing with crime or anything like that. They’re dealing with social issues, social problems. For that you need good life experience.”

Sewell disputes that there is a clear general trend toward increasing crime, but believes police face significant challenges nonetheless.

“We’re asking police to solve problems that they literally are not trained to deal with. We’re dealing with all these social problems, people who are mentally ill, people who are drug addicts. They aren’t policing issues, I’m afraid,” he said.

“We aren’t short on police officers. And crime levels in Canada are not going up. They’re generally going down. The only crime that’s going up are the crimes of sexual assault. And that’s because the police are now starting to treat women’s complaints seriously, which they never did before.”

Steve Flanagan served as a police officer in Ottawa in various capacities from 1974 to 2009. He told The Epoch Times he supported “direct entries” to the police force who may lack a diploma or degree, but said that a recent high school graduate would not be ready.

“Back in the 50s and 60s, high school was enough. However there was a greater importance placed on academics and real learning. Picking people from high school today would lower standards which are already tanking as it is. What is next, only Grade 8? Police agencies should scout other provinces and have job fairs,” he said.

Flanagan said probation for new hires has already become “a complete joke” because police forces have had to take whomever they can get.

“When I first was with the RCMP, and after the Ottawa Police, when someone was on probation they walked on pins and needles, knowing that they could be let go at any time for just about any reason. Today recruits laugh at this because they know it means nothing.

“There is not enough emphasis put on conversational and people skills. Many officers hired now have the personality of a dead fish.”

Flanagan said politically motivated demands to hire a certain amount of officers tend to diminish their quality.

“The government and cities will have to buck the current trend of quotas. This is most unfair and leads to terrible hiring in many cases. This, however, is easier said than done. It’s time to get a backbone but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.”

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.