Audit Finds Ottawa Police Deployment, Recruitment Strategies ‘Outdated’

Police attend an incident at East Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 5, 2025. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

A recent audit of the Ottawa Police Service found its deployment and recruitment strategies to be based on outdated targets and policies that don’t reflect Ottawa’s population growth and mental health and substance use crises.

Ottawa’s auditor general launched an audit into Ottawa Police Service (OPS) staffing to identify whether the force has “appropriate staffing and deployment strategies, processes, and resources” to support its service demands and operational needs, says the audit report, which was tabled at a finance and audit committee meeting on Aug. 8.

“Outdated policies may not reflect current practices or requirements of applicable legislation and organizational objectives,” the auditor general’s report says.

The audit identified areas of required additional focus to support OPS staffing and deployment strategies as Ottawa continues to grow and “the complexity of policing increases.” It indicated that effective staffing and deployment are essential to fulfilling the police force’s mission to “protect the safety and security of our communities.”

The OPS serves more than 1 million residents in Ottawa with a workforce of approximately 2,150 employees.

Although OPS allocates 85 percent of its budget to staff compensation, the police service faces ongoing staffing challenges, including vacancies, recruitment delays, and service gaps, which are intensified by increasing service demands due to more complex crime, frequent public demonstrations, and rising calls for service.

OPS must maintain a minimum of 42 frontline patrol cars on duty 24 hours a day, which is a stipulation that was established in 1995 and has not undergone an assessment since then.

“There is broad recognition that this minimum is no longer sufficient given Ottawa’s population growth, urban expansion, and the increasing complexity of policing,” the report says, noting that calls for police service in Ottawa increased by 90 percent between 2020 and 2023, rising from 645 to 1,148.

The audit found that OPS usually aims to reach a higher deployment level of around 48 patrol vehicles, but that this informal target is not always achievable owing to frontline resource constraints, especially during night shifts and shift changeovers. Meanwhile, the audit noted that two other peer police services in Ontario revisit their deployment methodology at least every five years.

Additionally, between 2020 and 2024, sick leave costs for frontline officers rose by 57 percent, increasing from $1.97 million to $3.09 million, while overtime costs grew by 242 percent, increasing from $683,000 to $2.34 million. This reliance on overtime is not sustainable financially, and it also contributes to officer fatigue and burnout, the report said.

In response to these findings, OPS management said the police chief will conduct an assessment to determine the minimum requirements for frontline deployment. This assessment will be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2026, and a “refresh/evergreen” assessment will be undertaken at least every five years going forward.

Recruitment Process

Recruitment is “foundational” to the quality, readiness, and integrity of the police service, the report indicates.

“For OPS, ensuring that recruitment practices are timely, compliant, and aligned with operational needs is essential to maintaining public trust and delivering effective policing,” the report reads.

The OPS recruitment and hiring process for sworn officers was found to be “lengthy,” and in some cases contributed to the loss of prospective candidates, ongoing staffing shortages, and reduced competitiveness in securing qualified candidates.

The standard time-to-hire among police services in Ontario is between six to nine months, the audit found. Meanwhile, when looking at 15 OPS sworn officer files, the audit found that the total time to hire exceeded one year in three instances.

The most significant delays were in assigning background investigations to designated investigators, which ranges from three weeks to seven months, the report says. However, the report indicates that OPS took steps between late 2024 and early 2025 to address the issue by reorganizing its background investigation team and assigning background checks earlier in the recruitment process.

“While the audit noted that OPS has a well-established recruitment program, supporting policies are not regularly reviewed and updated,” the report says.

Additionally, the audit found an issue with recruitment documentation not being stored in a central repository but being kept in multiple places, resulting in an inability to ensure the completeness of all files and availability of required documentation. Out of a sample of 15 sworn officer staffing files, the audit found two instances of key documentation missing from the candidate file. OPS indicated that a migration of all documentation and electronic files to a single repository is ongoing and set to be fully implemented by the end of July.

Moreover, a verification process to confirm complete documentation was not found, leading to the inability to confirm if all steps of the recruitment process were complete and all policies had been adhered to. While the OPS created a recruitment tracking log, the audit did not find evidence of the log being used in the staffing file sample. OPS said a tracking system would be implemented by the end of the second quarter in 2026.

‘Unsuitable’ Candidates

The audit found that staffing policies are outdated and “do not reflect current practices,” with some not having been updated in more than five years. For example, the report says matters that were raised through psychological assessments for specific recruits who had been hired went unaddressed.

Recruit candidates undergo a psychological assessment before being sworn in, and specific actions must be taken if a candidate is deemed to be either “suitable with concerns” or “unsuitable” for law enforcement service.

Those who are “unsuitable” are removed from the process and not allowed to reapply for 12 months, while those who are “suitable with concerns” must undergo further verification. However in a sample of 15 sworn officer staffing files, two were found to have been deemed “suitable with concerns” but there was no evidence of further verification.

“By not adhering to the established recruitment policies, OPS is recruiting candidates who may not possess the necessary mental fitness and suitability to serve in law enforcement,” the report says.

While the report says the auditors understand from OPS management that psychological assessments should not represent a pass or fail decision, it recommends that the police force update its recruitment policy to reflect its current practices and ensure proper documentation is established for scenarios that require exceptions to its policy.

The police service says the existing recruitment policy is under review and recruitment procedures are in further development to align with best practices and organizational needs. It says the aim is to finalize both the policy and procedures by the end of the third quarter of 2025

The auditor general’s office made 10 recommendations to the police service based on its findings, all of which were accepted by OPS management.

The Epoch Times reached out to OPS for comment but didn’t hear back before publication.