These Edmonton police officers are showing us the languages they speak
Project uses identifier tags to highlight multilingual officers in the community
In his 25 years with the Edmonton Police Service, Staff Sgt. Patrick Ruzage has used Swahili and Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, on the job.
This year, Ruzage started a language-identifier pilot project so other officers can make the most of their second or third languages.
"Edmonton is so diverse right now that we thought this project would be very helpful," Ruzage told CBC's Radio Active.
"And for employees to wear their language identifier, [it] gives us a sense of pride."
LISTEN | This police officer wears his languages on his uniform:
The pilot launched in February, using Velcro tags worn on the front of the uniform so community members can see what other language is available to them.
The tags, worn by officers in the EPS west division, are for 71 languages, including Punjabi, Urdu, Cantonese, Mandarin, Basa, Romanian and Ukrainian.
It's part of ongoing work at the police service to increase language accessibility. In 2019, EPS launched its language services department, the first of its kind in Canada.
"It is the only way to be able to provide equitable policing to all Edmontonians," said Iman Saidi, the language services unit lead. "And there has been a huge increase of diverse languages that we haven't had before."
The unit launched a live interpreter app in 2024. It also offers translation support for officers and members of the public.
When Ruzage approached the unit with his language-identifier idea, it was an easy yes, Saidi said.
"When someone is in need of any policing services, and they can request someone who speaks their language, there is a huge sigh of relief," she said.
"It was complementary to the larger project of how we're trying to reach the public."
Through a survey, EPS identified more than 400 employees, including sworn officers and civilians, who speak a second language.
Ruzage hopes the pilot will expand across the organization in the months to come.
"I think there's a huge appetite for it," he said.
Communicating better with a bigger community
Edmonton's population is growing rapidly. In 2021, 125 different languages were spoken in the city, according to a City of Edmonton report on settlement and immigration.
At the Newcomer Centre, "language classes are always full," said interim executive director Laurie Hauer.
The centre has more than 800 people enrolled in language classes, and a waiting list of around 1,200.
Add to that the experiences people have before coming to Canada, Hauer said, and it can affect how they interact with police or others in law enforcement.
"When you come from another culture, another space, those systems function differently," Hauer said. "So any time that you can do anything to enhance people's knowledge and understanding of that is critical."
Building community beyond policing
It's something Ruzage has seen on the job himself and has noticed during the pilot.
"The interactions that we've had with community members, especially immigrants who have moved to Canada — maybe their perception of police is very different, or they don't expect somebody within the police service to speak their language," he said.
"When they see this, it tends to calm them down, or bring them to a different level and not look at the police as just an enforcer."
He's even had young people from diverse backgrounds reach out to him about the pilot, expressing interest in EPS more generally.
Hauer said programs like these — with officers who speak these languages and have cultural knowledge — have an added benefit.
"There's an element of interpretation that's really critical, and that's the cultural element," she said.
"A translation or interpretation service sometimes doesn't take that into consideration. There's that added value of understanding that cultural piece."
The pilot started in February. Ruzage said he's proud of how quickly his fellow officers signed on.
"EPS has come a long way, and we still have a lot of work to do," he said.
"We've got to move with the times, and we are thinking outside of the box — how can we actually engage with the community and build those relationships."
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