Police react to Spectator ad

A battle is brewing between Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire and the Hamilton Spectator. The flap started over an ad the newspaper put on CHCH News and now neither side was backing down.

This is the ad that has Hamilton police Chief Glenn De Caire all fired up. De Caire claims this quick shot showing an officer who pleaded guilty to nine police act charges, was used by the paper to intentionally slam the police service: “The paper has purposely taken the decision to display our organization in a negative light.”

But Paul Berton, the Spec’s Editor in Chief categorically denies that: “It concerns me that he thought there was a conspiracy, because it was totally unintentional.”

Burton says the ad was done by a newsroom photographer with no oversight from senior management: “We gave the photographer not a lot of time and said get a lot of faces, show people what we do and how we are an award winning paper. He would have taken a phone, when he activated the Spec app, that would come up.”

But the chief didn’t buy it. So when the ad continued to run. De Caire wrote Berton a letter. De Caire then sent a copy of the letter to the rank and file.

The Hamilton Police Association, which represents the 1,200 officers and civilians that make up the police service, says it doesn’t see anything wrong with the ad.

Mike Thomas, Hamilton Police Association: “We didn’t receive any complaints about the commercial. I would prefer nothing negative ever makes it into the media but I know that’s never going to happen, it’s not a reality of the job of the media but I thought it was such a short clip, a second or less.”

Communications Consultant Laura Babcock understands some of the chiefs concerns but says he’s not going about it the right way: “Usually that’s the experience that someone has to sign off on advertising because it represents the Spectators brand, so I can see where the chief could have thought that. But to come out with a declarative that he’s sure of it, when the Spectator refutes that makes him look like he didn’t do his homework.”

But the chief isn’t backing down: “We aren’t going to stand idly by when our people are inappropriately characterized negatively and the fantastic work they do on a daily bases needs to be recognized.”

After our interview it was clear that some people do recognize it.

Paul Berton said he’s hopeful that he and Chief De Caire can work out their differences on this issue. It’s been a tough year for De Caire. He’s battled with city council over the police budget, then retired and later wanted his job back. The police services board agreed to keep him on.