Constable’s community-centered career celebrated

By Samia Madwar

Cst. Allen Percival (left) will take on the role that made Cst. Tim Senack (right) a known face in the community. (Madwar/offCentre)

Constable Tim Senack has spent the past fifteen years patrolling Hintonburg’s neighbourhoods on foot and on bicycle.  This type of grassroots, community-centred pavement pounding has helped change the face of Hintonburg.

When Senack started as a police officer, he spent several years patrolling neighbourhoods on foot. Ever since he joined the Community Police Centre in Hintonburg, he has returned to foot and bicycle patrols, which allow him to get to know community members personally.

“Maybe four years ago, five years ago, when I came over to the other centre,” said Senack, referring to the Community Centre’s earlier address, “[there were] 16 crack houses the first year. They closed up.”

“Right now, there’s a house up here that I know is selling marijuana,” Senack said, pointing out the window. “There’s a guy over here that sells a little bit of dope,” he added, pointing in the other direction.

“[Hintonburg] went from one of the most calls for service, to now it’s one of the second lowest calls for service in the city.”

Senack will retire next January after 29 years in the Ottawa Police Service.  His successor, Cst. Allen Percival, said he has big shoes to fill.

“Policing in general is community-based,” said Percival. “Not everyone will go to the police. But if Tim’s walking around, they develop a rapport.”

“You have to get the community involved,” said Senack, leaning back in his office chair.

“You can’t do it yourself.”

Carole Danis, the owner of Carole’s Barbershop on Wellington St, describes Senack as “a friendly person.”

“People have a tendency to want to talk to these people when they’re friendly,” said Danis.  “We want to open up to them when we talk to them, even though they’re the police.”

After having lived in Hintonburg for 42 years, Danis said she has seen the community take a turn for the better.

“One time I talked to a policeman,” she said, pausing to examine her customer’s hair. “Only up to about year and a half ago, there was a crack house across the street there. The cops cleaned it up. It didn’t take too long, though. If you helped them, they worked along.”

Bob Maginnis, who retired ten years ago after serving with the Ontario Provincial Police, is the Chair of the Community Policing Advisory of Ontario (CPAC). CPAC is an umbrella organization of community policing committees that was launched in the mid-1990s.

According to Maginnis, community policing has been a part of police work since its inception.

According to Maginnis, institutionalized community policing hearkens back to the nineteenth century, when then-U.K. Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel founded London’s Metropolitan Police Force in 1829.

“When Peel originally came up with policing and put civilian people in uniform to identify them as police officers, one of the most infamous statements he ever made was, ‘The police are the people and the people are the police,’” said Maginnis.

When radios were installed in police cars, community policing began to decline.

“In the late 1980s we realized that the officers had become so removed from the general public that they had lost touch with the issues that were of real concern to the community,” Maginnis wrote on the value of community policing for the CPAC website.

Some of the crime prevention programs at Ottawa’s Community Police Centres are as simple as placing notices on parked cars warning them against leaving valuables locked inside. This particular program was the brainchild of Gary Schitedoer – better known as Skate – fifteen years ago.

One of the notices ended up on Dave Brown’s car, prompting the now-retired Ottawa Citizen editor to publish an article on that program. Soon after, Senack made a new contact.

“Bad guys read papers too, I found out,” said Senack. “This guy calls me up because of the article, because my name’s there, my number’s there. He says, ‘Do you want to know who’s breaking into cars over there?’”

The informant ended up with a reward, and some time later contacted Senack again with a tip on who was behind some fraudulent ATM and credit cards that had been in the news.

“Everybody’s your eyes and ears,” said Senack. “If you didn’t have them, you wouldn’t know what was going on.”

Many community police centres in Ottawa rely on volunteers.

“The best volunteers are the seniors, because they stick with you and you’re not spending your time looking,” said Senack, listing the centre’s current volunteers, the number of years they have been with the centre and which days they come in.

According to Cst. Jean Paul Vincelette, a media spokesperson for the Ottawa Police, the service currently has 343 active volunteers in various divisions. Forty-two more are waiting in various phases of the application process.

Brenda Landry, coordinator of volunteer services with the Ottawa Police Service, said they rarely have a shortage of volunteers.

“We’re a popular place to volunteer with,” she said. “[With] most agencies it’s the other way around. And that’s just because of the type of organization that we are.”

Vincelette estimated that the official volunteer application process, which was only recently established, takes about 5-6 weeks.

“By making the process a tad more complicated we don’t have as many volunteers,” said Vincelette, “but the ones we do have are quality volunteers.”

Hintonburg's Community Police Centre was relocated to Wellington Street in 2007. According to Cst. Tim Senack, Hintonburg once had one of Ottawa's highest call rates; today, its call rates are some of the lowest in the city. (Madwar/offCentre)