Interview with WPS Chief Daryl Longworth

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Monday, 15 June 2020 14:32

WPS Chief Daryl Longworth discusses his thoughts on the ongoing anti racism protests across North America, "Defund The Police" and some of the things the WPS is committed to doing, to gain or earn back trust.

WOODSTOCK - Anti racism rallies continue across North America following the death of George Floyd.

Protests have popped up at most major cities in North America, we even had a BLM protest with nearly 1,000 people in the City of Woodstock last week. Heart FM recently spoke with Woodstock Police Chief Daryl Longworth for a broader discussion about policing and how he views what is happening at this moment in history. Longworth says it saddens him that the Police have lost some of their respect and trust in North America.

"It angers me that some people in the profession have abused their powers and have demonstrated some racist behaviour or out right racism, to the point of committing a criminal act and abusing that power. It is frustrating for us to watch here. I do think we are a little different in Canada, just the way we are trained and I think we are little more progressive in Canada, not to say, things like that don't or can't happen here because we are human beings that make up this profession, just like everyone else."

Longworth says a lot of the things they are calling for when it comes to policing in the United States are already happening in Canada, like Centralized training and Civilian over site bodies.

"I think we are a lot more progressive, we do have a centralized police college where everyone is trained, I think we are little more advanced in some ways in some of the diversity training, anti racism or unconscious bias training that we do receive here, we do have a long way to go. There have been protests here and that tells me that people have a voice, they want to be heard, we are not where we should be in terms of the trust and relationship with the public and we need to do a better job."

Longworth explains what goes through his mind when he hears people talking about "Defund The Police."

"If we are talking from similar language, providing funding to things like poverty, like addiction, like mental health crisis, those are things that Chiefs of Police have been asking for, for years. We recognize that there is a lack of funding in a lot of those areas. We recognized that here locally with our M-Heart program, we have partnered over the last 18 months on a pilot project where we partner with mental health crisis workers with our police workers and that has shown tremendous benefits and we have the data to support that, not only is it more efficient from a organization stand point but we are providing better supports to those experiencing mental health and addictions crisis."

The Woodstock Police Service released their strategic plan to the public last week. You can read it online here. It outlines clear goals and one of them is commitments to continue to foster continuous collaborative engagement and dialogue with our diverse communities, and to provide enhanced diversity and conflict resolution training for our members. Longworth says they have set up a committee to work with our diverse communities.

"I have reached out to a number of people in our diverse communities that I have worked with since coming here 9 months ago and have expressed an interest in helping us build those relationships. I have formed an advisory committee, I have invited a number of people from those diverse communities to come and be a part of that, to start laying out a road map of how we can do better. We recognized we are not perfect, we have much work to be done."

The advisory committee includes the two organizers of the BLM matter rally last week Hannah Hodder and Jessica Hofstetter, it also includes members of the Woodstock Punjabi community and Islamic community.

You can listen to the full interview with the Woodstock Police Chief Daryl Longworth below: