London Police invite outside jurisdictions to march in Sunday’s Pride Parade

London Police are welcoming officers from other jurisdictions to walk with them, in uniform, during Sunday’s Pride Parade.

The invitation comes amid a national debate about police participation in Pride events, with Toronto, Calgary, and Sudbury among those opting to ban uniformed officers and their floats from local parades this year.

“I don’t want our uniform to be a symbol of oppression,” London Police Diversity Officer Theresa Allott told AM980, adding she recognizes the relationship between police and the LGBTQ2 community has a troubling history.

READ MORE: London couple feels ‘violated’ after pride flag burned with cigarettes

“We recognize that things have happened that we need to learn from and that we’ve been working on improving.”

So far, Allott has heard back from Strathroy-Caradoc Police Service, Waterloo Regional Police, and the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre Corrections Unit, who will walk in uniform alongside London officers this year. She expects a group of more than 30 police, without taking into account Durham Regional Police who are bringing their own float.

“We’ve always extended the invite to other police services because we recognize that other police services… don’t always have the opportunity to show their support because those communities might not have parades or gatherings that occur.”

READ MORE: Pride London Festival offers free bus rides to residents of rural communities

Andrew Rosser, the president of Pride London, recognizes the matter of Pride and policing as a sensitive one. But he believes excluding certain organizations leads to a “slippery slope.”

“There isn’t an easy solution,” he told AM980.

“The institution of policing is never going to go anywhere, so we can work with them or work against them. And I think Pride London festival is working with them, and we recognize there’s still a lot of work to do, but we want to be engaged in the conversations. We don’t want to shut them out. We want to continue to push them to be a more inclusive and diverse police service.”

But before that can happen, Ryan Robinson wants to hear a conversation about racial profiling.

The recent Western University graduate identifies himself as a black queer man, and says during last year’s Pride Parade, he and a group of friends were approached by a police officer at the Western Fair.

READ MORE: London Police Services Board approves symbolic anti-carding motion

“It was a friendly encounter, but all three of us wondered why is this officer coming to speak with us when we were surrounded by other white males.”

Not only did Robinson feel uncomfortable, it made he and his friends feel unwelcome.

“There was already an air of suspicion, and I think that, for us, made us feel small.”

While some people feel safer with police presence at the parade, Rosser recognizes that others find it troubling.

“We hadn’t heard a lot, other than some positive comments about the police force being in the parade, until this week,” he said.

“I wish some of these groups had approached us and talked to us earlier and expressed some of these concerns. However, they didn’t. And as a festival, we have to do what our community is telling us at the time.

“I hope we can sit down and have a conversation, about what we do for next year.”