Bridging the gap through basketball: How the OPS uses sport as a recruitment tool
Posted Dec 8, 2018 06:49:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Haidar El Badry always wanted to be a police officer, but it wasn't until he joined the Ottawa Police Service's Hoopstars program that he found the way to realize his dream.
El Badry was a correctional officer when he joined the program, which has sought to engage young people through basketball and conversation in the city's community centres, high schools and parks. The program is run by volunteers who are mainly police officers from a range of different law enforcement agencies, as well as correctional institutions.
In addition to trying to hold healthy conversations with youth about the relationship between community and police, the program has served as a recruitment tool.
“Policing is not the first choice for many young men and women in the city, and even less so for those marginalized or high-needs communities. I don't think it's something that kids think about. And so what we do is we bridge the gap with basketball,” said Chabine Tucker, a constable with the OPS and a volunteer on the Hoopstars program.
“We develop trust, we play the game, we talk and walk and act like them. Once you break the ice, then you can have that conversation and we can share information that is key to them.”
Tucker said he first met El Badry at an Hoopstars outreach event in Michele Heights. He asked El Badry if he would be interested in a career in policing. When he said yes, Tucker enlisted four or five of his colleagues to offer El Badry help in any way they could to make sure he followed through on the process.
Chabine had the honour of giving the news to El Badry that his application had been accepted and he would be joining the OPS. He convened a number of colleagues and El Badry's friends in the program to deliver the message to El Badry when he was fittingly on the basketball court.
El Badry told 1310 NEWS that the Hoopstars program has helped him succeed in multiple aspects of his life.
“Basketball is something that has taken me away from a lot of things in life and put me on the right path,” El Badry said.
“It took me away from getting involved in the rough things in life.”
El Badry has already picked up his uniform and will be among the newest police recruits who will start training at Algonquin College on December 10.
