Constable Selection System

Becoming a Police Constable

The Constable Selection Unit was mandated to design and implement a new standardized system for Ontario police services to use in selecting candidates for the position of constable.

The Constable Selection System (CSS) began in February 1998 when the ministry granted licence to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) to sub-licence individual police services and private sector firms to use the system to assess police constable applicants.

To date, there are 41 police services, including 10 of Ontario's largest police services using the CSS. Approximately 80 per cent of police applicants in the province are assessed using this criteria.

To address the long-standing recruitment challenges faced by police services, the ministry worked with a diverse group of stakeholders to researching, designing and testing selection system:

• comprehensive research was conducted into what police officers actually do on the job, as well as what police personnel and the public consider the core duties of a police officer to be;
• competencies were identified to capture the skills, abilities, knowledge and traits that applicants should demonstrate under assessment to ensure they are acceptable policing candidates;
• a system of instruments and practices was designed to select constables;
• the new system was piloted by the Thunder Bay Police Service and 11 police services in Essex County in 1995, and by several other police services that requested use of the system or its components in 1996;
• based on evaluations by these police services and feedback from police assessors, candidates and expert opinion, the system was refined; and
• throughout the development and pilot testing of the new system, the ministry incorporated contributions from representatives from various ministries, agencies, police services and policing organizations, community groups/organizations and from experts in psychology and cultural bias.

The CSS is designed to streamline the police selection process for both applicants and police services to prevent such problems as:

• multiple applications by candidates to police services across the province requiring costly and time-consuming multiple assessment of the same candidates;
• inconsistent assessment of candidates by police services with differing selection criteria; and
• potential application of arbitrary selection practices not grounded on actual job requirements.