The Victoria Police Department is rolling out a new approach to training its recruits aimed at building better bonds with the community.
Chief Del Manak announced a new program on Wednesday dubbed “Before the Badge” he says will help build trust, respect and communication between officers and the city’s diverse communities and cultures.
Under the program, community policing candidates will attend week-long, culturally-immersive sessions designed by community partners, such as the Jewish First Nations and LGBTQ2 communities.
There they will learn more about people from religious, cultural and special interest groups, especially those who have been historically marginalized or underrepresented.
“What we want to do … we want to make positive change; we want to make sure the officers know from day one, in fact before they get their badge, the importance of community connections, and they will certainly get that at VicPD when they join our organization,” Manak said.
Manak said recruits had already participated in pilot sessions in January, including one with the Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island.
“They are going to be learning about the history of antisemitism and Holocaust education,” said federation president Sharon Kobrinsky of the program. “It has a history that goes back 2,000 years.”
Meyen Quigley, a member of Victoria’s Filipino community, said their session would have multiple objectives, including giving officers a better background on Filipino history, geography and culture.
“The second would be to kind of destroy stereotypes,” she said.
“The third would be to hopefully discuss some cases of Filipino involvement with police and how this could have been handled better.”
Manak said early engagement with the partner community groups has been a success.
“I can tell you that some of our community partners have already invited us to community events that in the past we weren’t invited to,” he said.
“It’s already starting to pay dividends in the relationships we are starting to build and the community connections that are so important to this police organization.”
VicPD’s Before the Badge program is modelled after a similar, successful initiative of the Seattle Police Department.