Strategic Operating Environment for the Canadian Police College

CPC over-arching strategic priorities

1. The CPC will become Canada's national police college by establishing partnerships and working cooperatively on training standards. This will serve to foster integrated policing.
   
   
2. The CPC will create a program for the 21st century which will advance the profession of policing through academic rigour, graduate-level studies, technology, and applied research.
   
   
3. The CPC will deliver internationally, and enhance the reach and reputation of Canadian policing.

The CPC is a member of the Canadian Association of Police Educators (CAPE).

The CPC also operates in an international arena, with students from a number of foreign countries. Comments from international students indicates that the learning opportunities provided at CPC are world-class.

Major environmental factors which will affect the CPC in the future are:

• Government and RCMP strategic priorities;
• the need for more integrated and intelligence-based policing;
• the pressure of police demographic trends, increasing police management and investigative sophistication which is increasing demand for training;
• higher standards for quality of life services such as food and accommodations, and,
• an evolving technology which offers advantages but is expensive to implement.

1. Government of Canada and RCMP priorities

Because the CPC mandate concentrates on leadership and advanced and specialized training, it is particularly well placed to contribute to the RCMP priorities of organized crime, terrorism, and economic integrity, plus the over-arching focus on multi-jurisdictional and internationally integrated policing.

The RCMP priorities are therefore providing focus and impetus for the CPC to raise its training standards, to withdraw non-core courses, and to offer learning opportunities to a wider clientele pursuing the same priorities. The need for training amongst aboriginal police services is also pressing, so the CPC will focus on increasing registrations from this community.

The Government of Canada (GoC) and the RCMP are also engaged in promoting international security. In support of this agenda, the RCMP has provided police support to peacekeeping operations and training to police from selected nations.

2. Integrated and intelligence-based policing

Providing courses to all Canadian and a number of foreign police officers each year also means that the CPC actively promotes integrated policing, which is vitally important to the RCMP and the GoC. The CPC is one of the few permanent institutions in Canada which allows police officers from across the country to physically meet, form contact networks, exchange ideas, receive the same instruction and perceive themselves as part of a larger police community.

The almost universal adoption of intelligence-based policing influences the CPC in two ways. First, operational intelligence courses must be improved, expanded and provided to a larger number of clients. Secondly the CPC must educate police in the uses of knowledge and open-source intelligence and make them available electronically through the services of the Canadian Police library.

3. The pressure of police demographic trends

A significant loss of expertise and experience has resulted from the retirement of the boom generation in the police population. The loss is affecting both police management and investigation. New police leaders urgently need sound preparation for the increasingly difficult job of directing multi-million dollar organizations, while police investigators must acquire the investigative capacity to avoid miscarriages of justice, Charter challenges, failure of major cases and other difficulties inherent in criminal investigations. There is extreme pressure to provide more and better investigative training to remedy these situations.

As described in a study conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP in 2002 for the CACP , significant numbers of police officers were recruited during the 1970’s, and have now begun retiring as they reach the pensionable years of service. This is leaving a skills gap in police executive management and leadership ranks, as well as in the specialized technical areas addressed by CPC/PSS. It is expected that the numbers of new NCO’s and executives will both ramp up strongly over the next 10 years, as the incumbents retire. New NCO’s requiring SPAC are estimated to number over 500 this fiscal year, and the number of new executives requiring training is expected to be about 90.

In addition, the police population has been growing faster than the Canadian population in recent years, going from 55,000 in 1999 to 60,000 today. These new recruits will require advanced and specialized training as they begin to come off the beat. From figures expressed at L&D planning sessions, the RCMP alone plans to hire about 1,500 new Regular Members per year over the next five years, representing about 30% of total new police hires.

The net result of these demographic processes is a continuing upward trend in demand for CPC courses out to 2010 and beyond. An annual demand of about 4,000 students (vs 3,100 this fiscal year) is predicted for 2010. Instructional staff, accommodations and classroom capacities are currently insufficient to meet this demand.

4. Technology

The continuing evolution and expanding application of information technology (IT) is at once an opportunity and a challenge for the CPC. It is an opportunity to improve business processes by applying IT to such activities as on-line client registration, provision of electronic intelligence products to police officers through the Library, or expansion of e-learning to supplement face-to-face learning. It is a challenge to find resources to invest in new IT, and to keep ahead of the misuses of IT by redesigning and expanding high-tech crime investigative training. The CPC recognizes the necessity of exploiting newly developed IT for its core mandate and vision.

5. CPC Infrastructure

The CPC infrastructure ranges from 28 to 70 years old and is receiving a major reinvestment. This includes residence bathrooms in A building, D building basement showers, and swimming pool building. In addition, much of the CPC classroom and residence furniture is being replaced.

State of the art equipment as used in the field is required for police technical training. It is expensive and constantly evolving so the CPC must find the resources to have a regular replacement program. Modern learning techniques also require a multi-media approach, so the CPC audio-visual capability and other media tools are being updated.

The standard of the physical infrastructure and the equipment available for training is being upgraded. It is important for the CPC to maintain at least adequate standards in its infrastructure since its clients pay close to half the costs, infrastructure quality contributes to the prestige of a learning institution and foreign students in particular will judge Canada and the RCMP by the conditions they find when they stay at the CPC.

6. Communication

The RCMP and the police community in general have many pressing operational priorities. Having responsibility for the management of a national police educational institution such as CPC, which forms part of a global network of similar institutions, is thus a challenge. This factor is compelling the CPC to engage in better communication of the issues to gain better understanding and support, both internally and externally, for its particular pressures and for its strategic direction.

7. Demand for improved quality of life

Government employees and police officers have high standards in terms of quality of life issues, such as accommodations and food while away from home. This group, from whom almost all CPC students are drawn, expect modern, hotel-standard accommodations, with state of the art services and recreational facilities. They also expect high quality food service, as this is one of the most important amenities.

To meet these challenges, the CPC has launched a number of strategic initiatives.

For further information, refer to the Police Sector Council's study of the 2005 Canadian Policing Environment.