1. Keeping the Peace: Lessons in Community-Police Mediation
Delivered January 25th 2018
By Dr. Evan Hoffman, Sr. Associate
Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation

2. The Nature of Policing
Policing is difficult work and there is always a need to balance public safety with the personal protection of the officer.
As such, even the best police officers might have a complaint made against them as they go about their daily work.
Often these complaints can have a legitimate basis in reality because a violation has occurred. At other times these complaints can simply be the result of a misunderstanding, a misperception, or even a lack of communication.
Either way, modern police forces need mechanisms to investigate and resolve these grievances since they are ultimately accountable to the people in the communities whom they serve.
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The Mediation Handbook: Research, theory, and practice

3. Public Grievances
The most common way to resolve these grievances is to have an internal investigations division (sometimes called internal affairs or professional standards) launch a formal inquiry into the incident.
When they get a new case, the investigations they launch can be intensive, lengthy, costly, and may ultimately result in the officer facing a number of consequences for their actions ranging from warnings to suspensions to termination.
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The Mediation Handbook: Research, theory, and practice

4. Alternatives to Formal Investigations
An interesting and growing alternative to a formal investigation process is informal, voluntary mediation.
A mediator may perform many roles such as convening the parties, educating them about the mediation process, facilitating their conversation, removing communication obstacles, and assisting them with drafting any new agreements they may reach.
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The Mediation Handbook: Research, theory, and practice

5. Benefits of Mediation Participation is voluntary and ‘off the record’
Privacy is maintained
Creates a neutral and safe space for the problem to be addressed through direct person-to-person communication independent of professional roles
Mediation doesn’t assign blame or punishment
Participants have maximum control over any agreement that is reached
There is great potential to create mutually-beneficial, “win-win” agreements
Trust between the parties can be built or re-established
Shifts in perspective around the conflict and understanding the impact of one’s actions means that similar conflict is less likely to occur
A direct communication channel is opened between the parties allowing them to exchange new information or supply missing info to the other party
Ongoing conflict can be addressed and there is an opportunity for reconciliation to occur
Source: CIIAN (2012)

6. Components of a Basic Police Mediation Program
There are 4 inter-linked components that form a police mediation program:
An agency to administer and oversee the program
A program manager
A mediation roster
A monitoring and evaluation plan
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The Mediation Handbook: Research, theory, and practice

7. The Voluntary Alternative Dispute Resolution Program (VADRP)
The VADRP provides a system of alternative dispute resolution to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) in its handling of public complaints against members, as well as internal personnel issues.  In addition, it offers members of the public and of the police service, the opportunity for a timely, effective, private, and voluntary resolution of a complaint. 
Source:

8. CIIAN’s Role
CIIAN worked closely with the OPS to establish and manage a roster of mediators, oversee case flow, and set evaluation objectives for the VADRP.

9. Training Activities
CIIAN also designed and delivered two customized training courses for the OPS:
The first was a half-day workshop entitled "VADRP Training Session for Professional Standards Section Investigators".
The second course was entitled "Conflict Management Skills for Police Officers: A One-Day Skills-Based Workshop" and it was delivered 3 times at Algonquin college to new recruits joining the OPS. 

10. Lessons Learned
Having an arms-length organization like CIIAN administer the program creates trust and credibility, ensures confidentiality, and is helpful to keep the whole mediation process on track from start to finish.
Source: the following “Lessons Learned” were first published here Hoffman, E. (2014, Winter). Using mediation to resolve public complaints against police officers. H.Q. – The official publication of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP). Toronto, Canada: OACP.

11. Lessons Learned
Former Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau notes that:
“The Ottawa Police program has taken a long time to develop and become successful. Much of the credit goes to the Ottawa Police Association which recognized early on that mediation had important benefits for their members and for the public. They bravely moved forward sometimes in the face of internal pushback. It is key in developing a mediation program in a police environment to have the support of the police officer association or union.”
Source: Hoffman, E. (2014, Winter). Using mediation to resolve public complaints against police officers. H.Q. – The official publication of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP). Toronto, Canada: OACP.
Customizing the program to match the exact needs of the police service and focusing on tying the program into the overall institutional culture is very important.

12. Lessons Learned
Utilizing expert mediators who follow the classic interest based mediation model has been critical to the success of the VADRP.

13. Lessons Learned
Educating the various different parties that engage with the VADRP informs them about mediation and helps overcome resistance to trying mediation. Educational efforts should occur through multiple channels and be customized to the target audience.

14. Lessons Learned
Having fixed deadlines for reaching certain steps in the mediation process is helpful for guiding the process and ensuring that certain minimum standards related to quality of service are met, but maintaining flexibility has also been very important.
On average, CIIAN mediators made first contact with the parties within 1.5 days.
The average time it took between having first contact with CIIAN mediators and holding the mediation session was 31 days.

15. Lessons Learned
Undertaking ongoing monitoring and evaluation in order to make adjustments to program design and delivery when and as-needed is important. Customized evaluation goals and methods that suit the program must be developed (we used a multi-dimensional model).
75% of the cases referred to the VADRP resulted in a successful outcome.

16. Q&A
Questions? Comments?

17. References & Further Reading
Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN). (2013). CIIAN report on the VADRP: Covering the period July, 2011-December, Ottawa, Canada: CIIAN.
Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN). (2012). Mediation tips. Ottawa, Canada: CIIAN.
Hoffman, E. (2016). “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” in The Mediation Handbook: Research, theory, and practice edited by Alexia Georgakopoulos.
Hoffman, E. (2014, Winter). Using mediation to resolve public complaints against police officers. H.Q. – The official publication of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP). Toronto, Canada: OACP.