The Toronto Police Service has successfully increased the number of new recruits from the various equity groups, thanks to a number of diversity recruiting initiatives.
To promote a career in policing to members of Toronto's many ethnic communities, the Service established a Recruiting Coalition made up of employees from Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Black, Somali, Jewish and LGBT groups. Officers participating in the Service's in-house "Ambassador Program" promote the Toronto Police Service as an employer by staffing recruitment booths at various cultural community events and celebrations throughout the year.
The Service has also recently launched an aggressive recruitment campaign to encourage more women to consider a career in policing. As part of this campaign, women candidates can enrol in a special preparatory workshop designed to help them improve their chances of successfully completing the physical fitness standards set by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP).
The make-up of a recent graduating class shows that their diversity recruitment efforts are working -- nearly 20% of the Service's new recruits were women, while fully one-third were members of visible minority groups.
