Widespread reliance on police checks in the non-profit sector has created an environment of risk aversion and increased barriers to volunteer engagement. Between long processing times, varying costs, a challenging request process and personal obstacles for many potential volunteers, organizations are missing out on passionate people who want to make an impact.

Between 2023 and 2024, there was a 60% increase in the number of vulnerable sector check (VSC) requests for volunteers in Toronto alone (24,583 requests compared with 16,053 requests in the previous year), indicating a greater dependence on this contentious screening approach for volunteers.


How Did We Get to an Over-Reliance on Police Checks?

Police checks – also known as criminal background checks, criminal or police record checks, clearance letters, and more – have been a consistent tool to aid in volunteer screening for decades (alternate source). But increasingly, they have become a final step in the screening process, solidified through the National Education Campaign on Screening Volunteers and Employees in a Position of Trust in 1996, and further galvanized by the 2012 Screening Handbook. Because of these efforts, there has been a continual increase in demand for police checks and specifically the VSC, the most invasive form of police check, which has become a “catch-all” to address risk in volunteer engagement.

In fact, of the roughly 75,000 VSC requests made overall for staff and volunteers through the Toronto Police Services in 2024, nearly a third were for volunteer roles.


Wasting Time and Money for Volunteers and Non-Profits

While less invasive checks, known in Ontario as Criminal Record Checks and Criminal Record and Judicial Matters Checks, became free for volunteers in 2022, the fees for VSCs vary across the province. Last year, Toronto Police Services alone received VSC requests valued at more than $656,000, or $26.71 per check. That’s money leaving the pockets of potential volunteers and organizations across the city just trying to make an impact.

Volunteer and organizational time is also being wasted through this process. Despite recommendations for all police check requests to move through the online application process for “fastest service” (Toronto Police Service FAQ), it can take 7 to 8 weeks for a single check to be processed (processing timelines on Toronto Police Service website), delaying a volunteer’s ability to start supporting an organization.

While this is the outlook in Toronto, the Ontario Nonprofit Network also notes that “volunteers and nonprofits experience uneven and unfair fees and processing timelines for police record checks across Ontario.”

Costs, processing delays, and difficulty even requesting police checks create major roadblocks in the volunteer engagement process. People eager to volunteer must wait weeks to receive and share their completed police check, which can lead to applicant demotivation, higher rates of attrition during screening and applicants looking for alternative roles with lower barriers and faster screening.

By reducing reliance on police checks, organizations can also reduce volunteer placement delays and minimize the $656,000 in fees paid by volunteers or organizations every year in Toronto to complete the checks.


Police Checks Perpetuate Inequitable Access to Volunteer Experiences

The process for requesting a check has its own challenges in addition to the cost. The online approach requires digital and English language fluency to complete, and performs a credit check for applicants. This means that only credit cards matching the names of applicants will work for payment. All of these add up to further barriers for potential volunteers, and limitations for organizations trying to engage.

People who want to volunteer may also face barriers based on the intersections of their identities and the carceral/justice system:

• Newcomers, with little time in Canada, will only have records from the day they arrived in the country, making police checks irrelevant. Also, the credit check in the online request platform simply won’t work for some newly-arrived newcomers, with no credit history.
• Black, Indigenous, Middle Eastern and Asian Torontonians are already subject to over-policing (BBC). Completing a police check request could re-traumatize or turn away potential volunteers whose interactions with police are harmful.
• People with non-criminal police contact for a range of potential reasons may feel uncomfortable or uncertain about the role of the police check in screening.
• Organizations often rely on police checks out of fear of liability and damage to public perception. Some funders and accreditors require this level of screening to receive support. At the same time, it’s important to challenge the assumption that police checks immediately equal safety. For example, a police check won’t tell you who is “bully”, or if someone has committed a crime but hasn’t been caught.

How to Move Forward and Modernize Volunteer Screening

It’s vital to assess the actual risks of a volunteer role and align these with the screening measures that are or can be most effective. In some cases, a police check or a VSC is necessary. However, how can other approaches tell you what you need to know?

It’s important to start by identifying the level of decision-making, authority, power, and/or trust a volunteer may hold and clarifying what safety really means for clients, volunteers, staff and community members. Be practical about your responsibility (and limitations!) in ensuring safety for everyone.
Reducing screening barriers – and increasing access to volunteering – starts with understanding and interrogating the role and necessity of police checks in your organization. Here are the first steps to consider modernizing your approach:

Review the current screening practices, and learn where (and why) you’re losing volunteers  along the way.

• Explore what safety means in your organization, in conversation with staff, volunteers, clients and community members, and who you can keep safe.
• Pilot alternative, less-invasive screening methods and assess how well they meet your need
• Join other senior leaders in conversation about appropriate screening tools and minimizing over-reliance on police checks.

Consider these practical alternatives to police checks that can align with the volunteer’s role and the amount of safety you can reasonably provide:

• Structured interviews that create opportunities for illustrating volunteer’s past experiences and possibilities.
• Role shadowing that enables volunteers to learn about the role first-hand and provides an assessment of their ability to perform the role safely and effectively.
• Appropriate, detailed and hands-on training that creates and clarifies expectations of the volunteer in their role.       
• Approaches to supervision that coach, guide and support volunteers throughout their role.

Police checks create barriers, causing your organization to miss out on incredible volunteers. It takes courage to change practices, but together our sector can increase access without over-reliance on police checks.

Sources & Additional Reading
https://theonn.ca/topics/policy-agenda/volunteerism/police-record-checks/
https://www.cardus.ca/research/spirited-citizenship/reports/vulnerable-sector-check-costs-remain-a-barrier-for-volunteers/
https://volunteeralberta.ab.ca/2025/02/16/rethinking-vulnerable-sector-checks-a-restorative-approach/
https://ccla.org/recordchecks/doc/Police%20Record%20Checks%20in%20Employment%20and%20Volunteering.pdf