Eliminating police college tuition fees and making room for more cadets is great for policing in Ontario and locally, says the Timmins Police Service board chair.
Today, Ontario announced that it is removing tuition fees for the basic constable training at the Ontario Police College (OPC) and expanding the number of recruits being trained every year.
“This is great for policing in Ontario and I think it’s great for the Timmins Police Service specifically. If there’s anyone that wants to get into policing, there’s no better time to join the ranks of the Timmins Police Service than now,” said Kraymr Grenke, who chairs the Timmins Police Service Board.
He doesn't think the provincial change will hinder local recruitment efforts.
In March, the local service rolled out a campaign to attract new officers, a major component of that was that TPS would pay for OPC tuition fees for cadets who successful graduate. The cost for that is around $15,500 per recruit.
"As much as we wanted to obviously stand out and be a little different from everybody else, this was just to help people get into policing," said Grenke.
"We saw that ... when you have a job already and you leave that job to come to policing and then you’re asked to put tuition forward, we saw that as a barrier to some people. Ultimately we still think we are going to have successes in our recruitment strategies as will a lot of other services across the province as well."
While Grenke wasn't sure how many new officers had applied locally through the recruitment campaign, he said five successful candidates are going to OPC next week.
The other part of the local recruitment effort is that experienced officers willing to move to Timmins and stay at least five years will receive $30,000. The deadline to apply is May 15, 2023.
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Eliminating the tuition fee is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023. That means recruits who paid for the 12-week course earlier this year will be reimbursed.
As part of today's announcement, each cohort at the Aylmer-based OPC will also have 70 extra recruits, going from 480 people per class to 550. The number of sessions per year is also expanding to four from three.
Policing services are allocated a certain number of spots in each cohort.
“It’s great to see them adding another cohort because that was one of the biggest problems, I don’t think they could just add more people they had to add an extra session,” said Grenke.
SEE: Board wants more police college spots for local recruits
The province is also looking to loosen the requirements for who can become a police officer.
Legislation is being introduced to eliminate the post-secondary education requirement for people looking to enter policing. If approved, it would mean people with the equivalent of a secondary school diplomat can be a police officer.
“These changes are good news for police services across the province, as well as for Ontarians considering a career as a police officer,” said Solicitor General Michael Kerzner in the provincial news release.
“We listened to the concerns about recruitment shortfalls and training limitations and have taken steps to remove barriers and expand the possibilities for those considering a career as a police officer.”
