For over a decade, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) has faced complaints about ongoing sexual violence against women. In the latest wave of outcry, OPS Chief Eric Stubbs was forced to address the problem in an internal video.
“Members are using our databases as their own way to meet women. Seeing a woman at a coffee shop, coming out of a gym, driving next to them, getting their license plates, and running them on the system,” he said. “We’ve seen members messaging vulnerable victims on calls that they’ve attended, in attempt [sic] to develop an intimate relationship. Internally, we’ve seen members making sexually themed comments directly to women in the service, in the workplace. This is happening way too often. We’ve seen sexual harassment, and we’ve seen sexual assault.”
As frank as the video was, it simply acknowledged a well-known fact. The current review of the OPS for sexual misconduct is the fifth in 10 years, and yet nothing changed in all this time. Just this April, an officer was demoted after he made more than 60 searches on the police database for ex-partners, and an investigation was launched into the president of the police union for sexual assault.
Stubbs’ message for officers was, “Change your behaviour now, or quit.” But victims, and former members of the force, have little hope that this time will be any different from the past four reviews.
Chief Stubbs says the solution is to have 30 per cent women officers and to create an advisory committee. But the officers are already 23 per cent women, and the OPS had an investigative office before, that Stubbs himself decided to close down..
Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson said this problem is “not a few bad apples.” This is true. And Ottawa is not a unique case. The routine scandals concerning abuse of power in Canada’s police forces are no coincidence. The problem lies with the institution itself. The police form an integral part of capitalist rule—relied upon, in the final analysis, to quell unrest, establish “law and order,” and to keep the system guarded from outside threats.
In turn, police forces act as a pole of attraction for some of the most chauvinistic and reactionary members of society. In order to keep their loyalty, these individuals are routinely placed above the law and made to feel a sense of impunity in their interactions with the public. The cases of harassment and abuse that naturally follow are a price that the powers that be are willing to pay in order to keep their “boys” tethered to them.
The only way to end the police’s abuse of power is to eradicate the system that they serve.
