Organizers ask why police decide security needs
Special event organizer says cost of officers and private security prohibitive
Ottawa police say paid-duty officers provide an extra layer of security at special events, but a festival organizer wonders if events are being forced to rent more cops than necessary.
Christine Leadman, the executive director of the Bank Street BIA, which runs the annual Glowfair festival, said the event’s paid-duty bill is about $15,000, on top of a $20,000 bill for private security. Some of the paid-duty officers get stationed at the festival gate, she said.
“To me, having to pay for police, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, when there are no problems, why? When I have private security that IDs and brings people in? Those (security), if there is an issue, will call police,” Leadman said.
Leadman said that if paid-duty police at Glowfair arrest someone, they have to call other officers from outside the event to take the suspect.
Police have a big say in whether a special events permit is issued. They provide input to a special events advisory team (known as SEAT), recommending how many paid-duty officers should augment private security.
Glowfair, which has been free to attend, was cited by Mayor Jim Watson during the municipal election campaign when he committed to reducing security costs for events. He wants to advocate for changes in provincial legislation to allow private security rather than paid-duty police.
A discussion about paid-duty policing has been snowballing at city hall.
Last week, Ottawa police finance staff told a committee of the police services board that the paid-duty hourly rate would need to increase if the police service wanted to recover all costs associated with the paid-duty service. Meanwhile, festivals running on shoestring budgets are warning against increased security costs.
City council has wanted the province to make changes to allow trained civilians to direct traffic, rather than paid-duty cops, but the province isn’t eager to allow it.
Police say how many paid-duty officers, if any, need to be working on the grounds of an event. The event must cover the paid-duty policing tab, which amounts to $84.90 per hour per constable, and there’s a four-hour minimum.
Ottawa police Insp. Michel Marin said there’s no set ratio of how many paid-duty officers to security guards an event must have.
“Depending on the venue, the type of venue, the demographics, the type of event, that kind of stuff is taken into consideration,” Marin said.
“It’s important to note we have a good relationship with organizers. Because there’s a risk involved in hosting some events, they want to ensure the risk is as low as possible because they want success for their event and they want people to have a good time.”
Security guards at concerts, for example, might check people’s belongings for personal recording devices, something that’s outside of police powers, Marin said. But police enforce liquor laws and watch for provincial and criminal offences, he said.
Marin said the police force isn’t unjustifiably forcing events to pay for cops.
“We’re not trying to have them hire a platoon of officers if they don’t need them,” Marin said. “We try to be very efficient, and if they want to reduce the numbers and we want to increase the numbers, we need to have those discussions, and there’s a certain risk that’s identified and they have to determine whether they want to accept the risk or not accept the risk.
“There’s also the safety of the officers at the event,” he added. “If we don’t put enough officers at the event and something untoward occurs, it puts the safety of those officers in jeopardy.”
Marin emphasized that police aren’t taken away from their regular duties for paid-duty shifts. The paid-duty shifts are over-andabove officers’ regular schedules.
Leadman said she understands the police requirement for some traffic work, but she finds it hard to reconcile a city trying to attract more events with the costs mandated by city hall to hold those events.
City staff want to review the bylaw governing special events on public and private property.
Anthony Di Monte, general manager of emergency and protective services, said staff are proposing that the bylaw be reviewed during the next term of council, but the new council will ultimately decide which bylaws are opened up over the next four years.