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It was a one-two punch for the city’s new top cop: two damning reports — one that showed Ottawa police continue to disproportionately target young black and Middle Eastern men in traffic stops — and the other an internal diversity audit that exposed systemic barriers to recruiting and promoting minorities.

But police Chief Peter Sloly said the studies and the openness in which they’re being dealt with mark Ottawa “as a leader in trying to address these very difficult issues that have plagued every police force in Canada and across the western world.”

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The criticisms, he said, reflectmore on shortcomings of the police service’s internal workings than it does on front-line officers.

“The internal audit for me is critical. If we don’t fix our house internally there’s no real ability for our members to go out and serve effectively, never mind equitably in the community,” Sloly said at a technical briefing on both reports held Wednesday at city hall.