Strategic plan includes larger police station
City councillors received a new four-year strategic plan for the Peterborough Police Service that resolves to find a solution to the overcrowded police station on Water Street.
Police services board member Les Kariunas presented the 2020-23 plan to councillors.
One of its goals is to develop a plan for a larger new police station — and to obtain approval for that plan from both the police services board and city council.
An architect’s report to the police services board from more than a year ago describes the police station on Water Street as outdated, overcrowded and lacking in both training and storage space. The architect recommended a new police station at a cost of $46.9 million — ideally on a new property, since the current lands are too small to accommodate a new building or an addition.
But city council hasn’t debated the idea yet. On Monday night Coun. Keith Riel asked whether a new station is really necessary now that more and more people are working from home in the pandemic.
Kariunas said he has a background in facilities management, particularly office space.
“We’ll be looking at space from a reasonable standpoint, because that’s my background,” he said.
Police Chief Scott Gilbert was also at the meeting and he told councillors that although many people in other fields are working remotely or from home these days, that’s not true for most police officers.
Gilbert said that most officers and staff — except for some who are immune-compromised — are back working at the station because the “majority” of the work police do requires them to report to the building.
Coun. Dean Pappas asked whether they might consider using the city’s information technology rather than pay for their own IT project manager, as a way to save money.
Gilbert said they need a “dedicated” manager who is both forward-thinking and proactive because police have so many specific and complex needs.
For example, he said, police followed the best advice available when it ordered iPhones a few years ago for officers only to find out later that Samsung smartphones turned out to be more suitable for police needs.
That’s an area where a dedicated IT project manager researches and offers a forwardthinking solution for police, Gilbert said.
The police board has already presented the new strategic plan to Cavan Monaghan Township council, where city police patrol on contract. Lakefield is also patrolled on contract by Peterborough Police. Selwyn Township council will soon receive the plan as well.