Inside the Toronto Police College this week, more than 75 mental health activists and members of the policing community witnessed the very latest in annual training that will be offered to all members of the force.

Developed in conjunction with mental health rights groups and survivors, the training emphasizes skills and characteristics that advocates and health professionals have long said are must-haves for police: empathy, communication and understanding.

Officers are being taught to establish a connection with a person in crisis that’s founded more on mutual respect and less on authority — a tactic sometimes called “dissolving the uniform.”

But if the Toronto Police Service is serious about changing police culture around use-of-force, some researchers and police experts say it’s vital the force becomes more discerning about who gets to wear a uniform to begin with.

“All the evidence points to the fact that the police thin blue line, or police subculture, is the most influential factor in changing a police officer’s behaviour and attitudes,” said Darryl Davies, a criminology instructor at Carleton University.

Recruiters need to be on the lookout for wannabe cops exhibiting a “tough macho cop” attitude — the kind of officer who may be more willing to shoot than talk — because there is little place for it in modern policing, he said.

“Cops need to be macho about providing a service to the community they serve,” he said.

If TPS wants its officers to exhibit certain traits, including compassion and a healthy attitude toward people with mental illness, “it is important to select for these traits in the hiring process,” retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci wrote in his 2014 review of Toronto police use of force, commissioned after the 2013 police shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim.

Iacobucci’s review included a critical look at the psychological screening conducted by Toronto police prior to hiring — and he said it does not go far enough. The service uses the 16 Personality Factor and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2, two commonly used tests to determine adult personality traits.

These tests, along with an interview with one of the force’s psychologists, help identify recruits with traits that Iacobucci calls “crucial to meeting the complex demands of modern policing”: emotional intelligence, empathy, tolerance of diversity, and patience. But the psychological screening has limitations; the tests, for instance, are sometimes so unreliable as to be invalid, Iacobucci said.

“In light of the service’s limited power to dismiss, suspend or otherwise discipline officers for misconduct, the role of Psychological Services in screening out psychopathology and screening in for desirable traits … is all the more important.”

The retired judge made several recommendations aimed at improving the screening process within Toronto police and attracting the best recruits — some of which have been implemented, while others are still under review.

The Toronto Police Service now says it prefers candidates who have completed a mental health first aid course. Iacobucci had said police should make it mandatory for new constables to ensure familiarity with this “core aspect of police work,” but Toronto police expressed some concern it might limit the pool of applicants if other police services did not set the same standard.

The force has also implemented the recommendation that applicants who have post-secondary education are preferred; typically, 80 per cent of recruits hired have some post-secondary credentials, according to Toronto police.

But the service is still only considering a recommendation that would give police psychologists a greater role in the hiring process. Currently, results of psychological testing must be summarized into a report in somewhat limiting terms: “suitable,” “suitable with concerns,” or “not suitable.” Any concerns about the suitability of a candidate for hire “must be described in the report,” Iacobucci said.

Psychological testing for officers under consideration for the high-stress, high-risk Emergency Task Force (ETF) unit is more exhaustive. There, the evaluations include personality and cognitive testing and a comprehensive psychological interview that lasts two and a half hours.

The psychologist is looking for everything from a stable mood and ability to remain calm under stress, to a personal sense of ethics and justice, to sufficient patience and low impulsivity, according to Iacobucci’s report.

Iacobucci highlighted the fact that psychologists are far more involved when hiring ETF members. Rather than simply providing a written report, they discuss the applicant directly with the selection committee.

“This discussion enables the psychologists to communicate any concerns raised in relation to the suitability of candidates,” Iacobucci said.

In a detailed response to the Iacobucci recommendations this fall, the Toronto Police Service said it recognized the potential value of relying more on psychologists at the hiring stage, but said given the timelines associated with recruiting and hiring, it may be difficult. The recommendation is under review.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Medicine Hat Police Chief Andy McGrogan says there may be a simpler way.

Last year, the top cop in the small Alberta city spearheaded a unique hiring experiment that may be instructive for forces struggling with soaring costs and attempting to attract officers best suited to modern policing.

Needing to hire eight new cops for his 115-officer force, McGrogan ran a three-month “audition” — a process, he says, akin to The Amazing Race.

The force brought on 11 potential recruits, called “police cadets,” paid them a stipend of $1000 a month and trained them for 17 weeks. They also partnered with a community college and got the program accredited, so that all the participants got a one-year academic accreditation, no matter what.

From the start of the program, the cadets knew only eight would get hired.

“In policing, we traditionally hire and then pay them, and when you think about it, it’s a-- backwards,” McGrogan said, adding that in his own class, there were four or five “who should never have been hired.”

“This way we got to see their values, their decision-making — it really separated out the ones we wanted to hire and the ones we didn’t.”

The decision to hire an officer is “huge,” McGrogan said. It’s typically a 25- to 30-year investment — and in his experience, “almost every time” he has had to deal with a problem employee, he could go back to the recruiting stage and see signs the person wasn’t cut out for the job.

The Medicine Hat police service will continue to use the hiring system in the future, mainly because it helps identify which recruits have the “number one skill”: “The ability to communicate and interact with the community,” McGrogan said.

“Those with good interaction and social skills, they’re the people we need.”

With files from Betsy Powell