'It's all about inclusiveness': Windsor police debut new, colourful uniforms
The idea was pitched by an officer who identifies as part of the Windsor LGBT community
Attendees of this year's Windsor PrideFest celebrations will likely notice some officers wearing slightly more colourful uniforms.
That's because officers will be wearing rainbow patches which replace the standard black and white 'POLICE' labels on their uniforms.
The patches were the brainchild of Const. Yvonne Ouimet, who has identified as a member of the LGBT community in Windsor for the past 20 years.
She said she brought up the idea of wearing rainbow patches with her superiors after she'd seen other police forces don similar designs.
"I talked to my senior administration about [how we participate] in a Pride parade, and we didn't really have the colours to show the pride," said Ouimet.
"Finally this year, I had my senior leadership team say yes."
Once she received approval, Ouimet asked her fellow officers if they'd be interested in wearing the rainbow patches.
"It's all voluntary," she said. "And those who said yes, which was a lot of members, were all given a police patch to wear for this week."
For Ouimet, the patches are a way of showing Windsor police's commitment to the city's LGBT community.
"I understand that, as a police officer, I [am] a role model and I have an opportunity here to show positiveness in our community by being a police officer ... and a gay police officer," she said.
"So this is how we show to our members of the … LGBTQ+ [community] that we are here to serve them and even more that we'd love to see if we can recruit any of them from that community," she said.
Ouimet said she hopes she can convince Windsor police to don the patches throughout all of Pride month next year.
"There's a lot of civilian members within our service who wanted to show their support, so we're going to find a way next year to include them and show the kind of support," she added.
'Working towards becoming a better organization'
David Lenz is the president of the Windsor-Essex PrideFest. He said that, while there are still ongoing issues between police and members of the LGBT community, Windsor police's attempts to improve this relationship shows that they're "working towards becoming a better organization."
"And that was just the sign of what they did today," said Lenz. "They were coming out and showing support."
Lenz added that Windsor-Essex PrideFest works closely with police to ensure security during festivities.
"We have had them in our parade for many years and we still have them in our parade," he said.
Jayce Carver is the executive director of WE Trans Support. She said that individuals who identify as trans continue to face "a lot of violence even here locally from policing services … but I will say that I see progress is being made."
Carver added that many members of the trans community, especially trans people of colour "find the uniform itself to be triggering of trauma that they've been through."
She said she'd personally like to see officers supporting members of her community outside of uniform.
"However, if they are going to wear a uniform, it's great that they had some rainbow paraphernalia on and changed their uniform up to be supportive," said Carver.
Carver said there are many layers of oppression that need to be worked through "that only can be worked through by continuing to bring leaders like myself — trans leaders — to the table at policing services to see how we can make sure that officers are trained with knowledge and sensitivity."
"That needs to come from the trans community, because it's the trans community that seems to be at the biggest risk and are the biggest targets in this day and age," she said.
With files from Jason Viau