Police Chief Bryan Larkin on policing during the pandemic

The role of public service has changed immensely over the last two years, forcing public servants to think on their feet, adapt quickly to change and make the community feel safe.

Waterloo Region's police force was no exception.

Chief of Police Bryan Larkin told CityNews Kitchener that the night before the state of emergency was issued on March 17, 2020, the police force was gearing up for some “significant challenges” around St. Patrick's Day. But before they knew it, Waterloo Region was in “full-blown pandemic mode.”

They had to rethink how to deliver services while following both the public and provincial health guidelines. 

“The pandemic allowed us significant internal change even around interacting with the community. We enhanced our online reporting — now community members can submit a video and other information electronically,” Chief Larkin said.

WRPS learned to use technology and automation to the best of its ability. Those changes included recruiting: the service began utilizing video streaming to interview recruits. Internally, they changed how they interacted with the court's system, learned to manage prison care, and the way they delivered evidence and testimonies.

The police force also focused on its strategic plan to see what was allowed and what wasn't with the pandemic and the global supply chain issue.

“We had people working from home, and in the past, we were told that would never happen. But in 72 hours, 15 per cent of our workforce was working from home.”

During the first nine months of the pandemic, road networks and call volumes were down because people were abiding the isolation rule. Instead, the “impacts of social disorder” were on the rise — particularly in the last 12 months.

“People are frustrated and challenged. There are more protests, demonstrations. Nationally we were involved in the occupation in Ottawa and Windsor,” he said.

The pandemic shifted the focus to other issues in the region as well. Larkin said that included social disparity, homelessness, encampments and the rise of deaths continue in the area.

 “As a police service this allowed us to shine a light and discuss [the issues]. Intimate partner violence calls are up, and now we see a push in demand for mental health call services. We are working hard to triage and ensure better-equipped agencies manage these health services.”

While the force has had a unique experience in policing over the two years, Larkin expressed they did do “exceptionally well” even with limited people off during the Omicron wave. 

However, the pandemic did create a lot of division within society. Larkin hopes that'll change.

“There is opportunity ahead [with] what we have learned [to] re-engage our community and build those trusting relationships again.”

Although the pandemic did teach us to utilize technology broadly, it still has its disadvantages: Larkin added technology doesn't build solid relationships or keep community engagements. 

He said, now as we come out of this “it's time to figure out what is the new normal: How do we find the balance between efficiency and technology and modernization?”