University of Guelph-Humber

For more than a century, from Timmins to Toronto, police officers in Ontario overwhelmingly had a similar profile. Almost anywhere you went, they were white, working class, male, and heterosexual. According to research by Joe Couto, a Justice Studies professor at the University of Guelph-Humber, the last 30 years have brought change to nearly all of those factors. But, one aspect remains a challenge.

Starting in the 1980s, police services began to see demographic shifts in their new recruits. “First, we had more women entering police services, and they broke enough barriers so that we now have a number of police chiefs who are women,” says Professor Couto, who is also Director of Government Relations & Communications with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. “Then we had racialized groups, people who weren’t part of traditional police culture, and now we have a Black chief in Toronto and an Asian chief in Cobourg.”

Professor Couto says that while this progress should be celebrated, there is a real urgency in the need to increase the number of LGBTQ officers serving with Ontario’s police services. Even as other historically excluded groups have taken to policing, services been slower to reflect sexual. The reasons for this are fairly simple. A history of harassment and mistreatment and an internal culture that has long been hyper-masculine has often made police work an unattractive prospect to potential queer recruits.

Now more than ever though, police across the province are working harder to reflect the populations they serve.

“We’ve shifted away from the policing philosophy of professionalism to that of community policing. The former suggests that we want officers to be very good at arresting people, stopping crime and essentially enforcing the law,” says Professor Couto. “Community policing has officers spend more time speaking with their communities in an effort to address the root social and economic causes of crime. When you do that, you need officers who reflect the community they’re trying to serve so that people will feel more comfortable working with them.”

To better serve LGBTQ communities then, Professor Couto says that police need to recruit and train more LGBTQ officers. Doing so means overcoming deeply held distrust and winning people over to the idea that the police are there to serve and protect, rather than harass them. In order for change to happen, though, the first move has to come from police.

“Police services have to acknowledge that they’ve made mistakes in the past. These are people who feel that the police haven’t been part of their community and were in fact oppressive or marginalized them — police need to recognize and acknowledge that the past isn’t how we want it to be,” Professor Couto says.

“You need officers who reflect the community they’re trying to serve so that people will feel more comfortable working with them.”

It’s for that reason that police apologies, like Toronto Police’s recent statement of regret for the infamous 1981 Bathhouse Raids, are important.

“There’s real power in words, especially ‘I’m sorry,’” he says. “Then, you need to walk the talk. LGBTQ people need to see words in action.”

Doing so means putting into place better policies, planning for different training, and most of all, actively recruiting more LGBTQ officers. In time, changing the composition of a police service will also change its internal culture.

“It’s not enough to wait for people to come to you, the services need to go actively recruit members of the LGBTQ community,” says Professor Couto.

Even with significant recruitment efforts, change will come slowly and gradually. Changing the makeup of an institution takes time, as old ideas move out and new ideas and new people make their way in. With that long view in mind, Professor Couto is excited about sharing his findings with his students at UofGH.

“My students are going to hear about my research, they’ll learn about this issue, and I’m hoping to inspire them to face and address issues like this that are affecting police culture and structure,” he says. “It’s my job as an educator to get the students in the seats asking questions, because these are the people who are going to change the future.”

Learn more about Justice Studies at the University of Guelph-Humber.

Learn more about Justice and Public Safety Degree Completion at the University of Guelph-Humber.