In this webinar, Dr. Hoffman will discuss his involvement re-designing and implementing the Voluntary ADR Program (VADRP) for the Ottawa Police Service and providing conflict resolution skills training to new recruits joining the force.

1. KEEPING THE PEACE:
LESSONS IN COMMUNITY-
POLICE MEDIATION
Delivered January 25th 2018
By Dr. Evan Hoffman, Sr. Associate
Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation

2. The Nature of Policing
• Policing is difficult work and there is always a
need to balance public safety with the
personal protection of the officer.
• As such, even the best police officers might
have a complaint made against them as they
go about their daily work.
• Often these complaints can have a legitimate
basis in reality because a violation has
occurred. At other times these complaints can
simply be the result of a misunderstanding, a
misperception, or even a lack of
communication.
• Either way, modern police forces need
mechanisms to investigate and resolve these
grievances since they are ultimately
accountable to the people in the communities
whom they serve.
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and
Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The
Mediation Handbook: Research, theory, and practice

3. Public Grievances
• The most common way to resolve these grievances is to
have an internal investigations division (sometimes called
internal affairs or professional standards) launch a formal
inquiry into the incident.
• When they get a new case, the investigations they launch
can be intensive, lengthy, costly, and may ultimately result
in the officer facing a number of consequences for their
actions ranging from warnings to suspensions to
termination.
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The Mediation
Handbook: Research, theory, and practice

4. Alternatives to Formal Investigations
• An interesting and growing
alternative to a formal
investigation process is
informal, voluntary mediation.
• A mediator may perform
many roles such as
convening the parties,
educating them about the
mediation process, facilitating
their conversation, removing
communication obstacles,
and assisting them with
drafting any new agreements
they may reach.
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of
Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The Mediation Handbook:
Research, theory, and practice

5. Benefits of Mediation
• Participation is voluntary and ‘off the record’
• Privacy is maintained
• Creates a neutral and safe space for the problem to be addressed through direct
person-to-person communication independent of professional roles
• Mediation doesn’t assign blame or punishment
• Participants have maximum control over any agreement that is reached
• There is great potential to create mutually-beneficial, “win-win” agreements
• Trust between the parties can be built or re-established
• Shifts in perspective around the conflict and understanding the impact of one’s
actions means that similar conflict is less likely to occur
• A direct communication channel is opened between the parties allowing them to
exchange new information or supply missing info to the other party
• Ongoing conflict can be addressed and there is an opportunity for reconciliation to
occur
Source: CIIAN (2012)

6. Components of a Basic Police
Mediation Program
There are 4 inter-linked components that form a police
mediation program:
1. An agency to administer and oversee the program
2. A program manager
3. A mediation roster
4. A monitoring and evaluation plan
Source: “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” (Hoffman, 2016) in The Mediation
Handbook: Research, theory, and practice

7. The Voluntary Alternative Dispute
Resolution Program (VADRP)
The VADRP provides a system of alternative dispute
resolution to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) in its
handling of public complaints against members, as well as
internal personnel issues. In addition, it offers members of
the public and of the police service, the opportunity for a
timely, effective, private, and voluntary resolution of a
complaint.
Source: http://ciian.org/vadrp1.html

8. CIIAN’s Role
• CIIAN worked closely
with the OPS to
establish and manage
a roster of mediators,
oversee case flow, and
set evaluation
objectives for the
VADRP.

9. Training Activities
• CIIAN also designed and delivered two customized
training courses for the OPS:
• The first was a half-day workshop entitled "VADRP Training
Session for Professional Standards Section Investigators".
• The second course was entitled "Conflict Management Skills for
Police Officers: A One-Day Skills-Based Workshop" and it was
delivered 3 times at Algonquin college to new recruits joining the
OPS.

10. Lessons Learned
Having an arms-length organization like CIIAN administer
the program creates trust and credibility, ensures
confidentiality, and is helpful to keep the whole mediation
process on track from start to finish.
Source: the following “Lessons Learned” were first published here Hoffman, E. (2014, Winter). Using mediation to resolve public complaints
against police officers. H.Q. – The official publication of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP). Toronto, Canada: OACP.

11. Lessons Learned
Customizing the
program to match
the exact needs
of the police
service and
focusing on tying
the program into
the overall
institutional
culture is very
important.
Former Ottawa Police Chief Charles
Bordeleau notes that:
“The Ottawa Police program has taken a long
time to develop and become successful.
Much of the credit goes to the Ottawa Police
Association which recognized early on that
mediation had important benefits for their
members and for the public. They bravely
moved forward sometimes in the face of
internal pushback. It is key in developing a
mediation program in a police environment to
have the support of the police officer
association or union.”
Source: Hoffman, E. (2014, Winter). Using mediation to resolve public complaints against
police officers. H.Q. – The official publication of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police
(OACP). Toronto, Canada: OACP.

12. Lessons Learned
Utilizing expert mediators who follow the classic interest
based mediation model has been critical to the success of
the VADRP.

13. Lessons Learned
Educating the various different parties that engage with the
VADRP informs them about mediation and helps overcome
resistance to trying mediation. Educational efforts should
occur through multiple channels and be customized to the
target audience.

14. Lessons Learned
Having fixed deadlines
for reaching certain
steps in the mediation
process is helpful for
guiding the process and
ensuring that certain
minimum standards
related to quality of
service are met, but
maintaining flexibility
has also been very
important.
On average, CIIAN mediators made
first contact with the parties within 1.5
days.
The average time it took between
having first contact with CIIAN
mediators and holding the mediation
session was 31 days.

15. Lessons Learned
Undertaking ongoing
monitoring and evaluation
in order to make
adjustments to program
design and delivery when
and as-needed is
important.
Customized evaluation
goals and methods that
suit the program must be
developed (we used a
multi-dimensional model).
75% of the cases referred to the
VADRP resulted in a successful
outcome.

16. Q&A
Questions? Comments?

17. References & Further Reading
• Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN).
(2013). CIIAN report on the VADRP: Covering the period July,
2011-December, 2012. Ottawa, Canada: CIIAN.
• Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN).
(2012). Mediation tips. Ottawa, Canada: CIIAN.
• Hoffman, E. (2016). “Promoting Peaceful Communities: The
Challenges and Benefits of Community-Police Mediation” in
The Mediation Handbook: Research, theory, and practice
edited by Alexia Georgakopoulos.
• Hoffman, E. (2014, Winter). Using mediation to resolve public
complaints against police officers. H.Q. – The official
publication of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police
(OACP). Toronto, Canada: OACP.