‘One of the most significant things we do in my tenure:’ Chief Sloly on accelerated hiring

The Ottawa Police Services Board unanimously approved a proposal that would see the expedited hiring of 100 new police officers aimed at combatting an increase in gun violence and gun deaths in the city. 

The board approved the plan, announced only five days ago, during Monday evening’s board meeting. Police Chief Peter Sloly says that he expects Ottawa residents to begin seeing more cops on the street by the end of the year. 

“This will be one of the most significant things we do in my tenure,” said Sloly, who made a point to credit the senior leadership team for the plan. “The goal is to put more officers on the ground and have them fully deployed in a much shorter time frame. These are all officers that would have been hired over the next four years, we’re just fast-forwarding.” 

The 100 new police officers are not 100 new officers, per se. Rather, the plan is best described as an acceleration of existing hiring plans. The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) had already planned and budgeted to hire 30 new officers every year (on top of replacing those who retire or leave the force) until 2023. Newly-minted as chief, Sloly was asking the board to front-load much of that growth into 2020 — so instead of 30 new officers hired every year, 100 officers will be hired in 2020 and will begin hitting the streets by the end of the year. No new officer positions will be created in 2021 and 2022 as a result, and the OPS now plans to hire only 20 new officers in 2023. 

The keystone feature of the plan, the thing that has made it very popular among elected politicians, is that it adds no costs to the police budget. 

“This is going to cost the taxpayer no extra money,” said Sloly. Instead, the $14.7 million cost will be funded by taking $5.3 million from the general reserves and $9.4 million from the Modernization Roadmap capital budget. The OPS’ chief administrative officer Jeff Letourneau said that the impact of this draw-down will be limited, as the money will be found mostly by phasing out initiative with so-so success and by streamlining back-end services. 

The move — Sloly’s first major move as police chief — follows closely on the heels of what he called “a violent start to 2020,” and several years’ worth of mounting frustration about a perceived increase in gun and gang activity in the city.

“The community has told me they want to see more policing, better policing, higher quality policing,” said Sloly. “It is time to pivot from listening and learning…into actual implementation and plans.” 

The move will be one of the most rapid hiring sprees in the OPS’ history, perhaps even its biggest. Mayor Jim Watson called it “the single largest hiring of police officers since I’ve been here” and praised the proposal.

The accelerated hiring plan was passed virtually unopposed, with most of the board’s questions focused on either the costs or the details of implementation. By and large, the board seemed to view the proposal’s passage as an inevitability as soon as the members walked through the door. 

Criticisms of the OPS, expressed online and within community organizations, has challenged the dogma (evidently shared by board members) that more police will necessarily have a positive impact on crime. Many of these new officers will be deployed as part of the re-establishment of the heavily criticized neighbourhood policing program, widely seen as a contributor to tensions between police and the city’s racialized communities. And in what might be seen as an oversight, no organizations representing those racialized communities were involved in Monday’s board meeting.


If there are criticisms of the idea that more police on the streets will slow the increase in gun crime, Sloly hasn’t heard them during his time in the community. 

“I haven’t heard anybody say we don’t want more police officers,” said Sloly. “This isn’t a zero-sum game where the cops get a dollar, libraries don’t get a dollar. It doesn’t take away from — in fact, I think it will complement — the efforts of not-for-profit agencies and other city services…that are looking to build community efforts and raise up communities to a higher level.” 

The meeting also included a presentation on the force’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, which is now available online and open for public consultation.