VIDEO MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF OF POLICE

VIDEO MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF OF POLICE
‘Stay-At-Home’ Order 

LONDON, ON (January 18, 2021) – The current ‘stay-at-home’ order announced by the Province, may have some in our community confused with regard to the legislation, and in particular, the role of the police.  As your Chief of Police, I want to speak to you about the role of the women and men of the London Police Service. We, like all police services in Ontario, are focused on the 4 Es: Engaging, Explaining, Educating and Enforcing.  First and foremost, I recognize that the vast majority of citizens are complying with the order – thank you. Since the start of the pandemic, our preference has been to engage, explain and educate those who are in non-compliance with provincial restrictions; however, when this has been insufficient to ensure compliance for the safety of our community, we are required to enforce the restrictions, and we do this in partnership with City of London By-Law Enforcement and the Middlesex-London Health Unit to make our community a safer place. The overwhelming majority of our enforcement activities have been in response to complaints of large gatherings.  

The most recent provincial order has enhanced our authority to enforce compliance, including providing police with the authority to disperse gatherings, and ticket individuals and corporations found to be in contravention of the stay at home order. Let me be clear, we would much prefer to not have to act on these authorities, seeking instead voluntary compliance. However, if a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe that an individual(s) or corporation is in contravention of the order, enforcement may result. Such enforcement may require an individual to provide the officer with their name, date of birth and address, for the purposes of enforcing the ‘stay at home’ order only. 

With the latest restrictions, we have heard concerns from some members of the community about the potential for biased enforcement of the restrictions by the police. I understand that there is a level of heightened concern for some members of the BIPOC community, not only in London, but throughout the province. Some concerns relate to the notion of police conducting arbitrary stops of people or vehicles to check on the compliance of the ‘stay-at-home’ order, and I want to reassure the public once again that this will not happen here in the city of London. The provincial restrictions do not allow for these powers, nor do we want them.  Further – we will not be asking for, nor are citizens obligated to produce proof of essential employment. 

I also want to reassure all Londoners that the London Police Service is committed to respectful and bias-free policing, not just related to COVID-19, but in the daily work we do. Over the last several years we have invested in considerable training and education surrounding anti-racism and implicit and explicit bias at all levels of our organization. We continue to ingrain the principles of fairness, respect, and dignity for all throughout our operations. Our officers are trained to identify implicit and explicit bias in themselves and in their roles as police officers, and I know they are as adamant as I am that there is no place for racism or any form of biased treatment in this community, nor in our police service.  Our operations include audit, oversight and a robust complaint system. Should concerns be raised as to the actions of our officers, we will work diligently to rectify the situation, learn from it, and become better. 

In relation to the COVID-19 restrictions and the stay-at-home order, we fully recognize there are many valid reasons for individuals to be out of their homes including, but not limited to, grocery shopping, medical appointments, pharmacy visits and, for many people, continuing to work at jobs deemed essential. We recognize that some members of our community are homeless or ‘sleep rough’ and have no stable housing. Enforcement measures will not be taken against these citizens, rather, we will assist them in staying safe to the best of our ability. We continue to urge all Londoners to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. 

I have faith that our officers will continue to deliver exemplary service to the community as they do every day, and that will include bias-free enforcement of this order. Our members do incredible work and I am immensely proud of them for continuing to do their jobs in very trying circumstances. Our focus is on public safety, and the ‘stay-at-home’ order was put in place to ensure that members of the community do not put others in danger. To that end, we will continue to respond to complaints in relation to contraventions of the orders, in the same manner that we did before the second ‘State of Emergency’ was declared.

Steve Williams
Chief of Police
London Police Service

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