Small-town police an endangered species
The OPP can offer a cheaper alternative to local law enforcement
The escalating costs of law and order are spurring some mayors to consider shutting down their local police forces, a controversial measure that is being used more and more throughout small-town Ontario.
“When you look over the horizon, small police forces are just not sustainable,” said John Fenik, the mayor of Perth. “I truly think that smalltown municipal police forces are an endangered species.”
Perth has had a force — currently 15 officers — since 1851. But the town, southwest of Ottawa, is in the process of contracting out to the Ontario Provincial Police. Six other municipalities have recently asked the OPP for cost estimates and several others are mulling the step, including Brockville, home to the province’s oldest force.
Throughout Ontario, the idea of ending local forces continues to be controversial.
“Policing is very important when you live in a small town,” said Avril Ewing, chair of the Committee to Keep Port Hope’s Police.
“I was terrified at the thought of losing our police. We know them, they know us.”
The list of towns policed by the provincial force has grown by 21 since 2000.
Ewing’s committee rallied and petitioned, saying they didn’t “want to become just one more Ontario town policed by the OPP.”
The provincial police proposal would have allowed Port Hope’s 25 officers to join the local OPP, solved the need for a new police station and cut costs by $7.7 million over a decade. The municipality spends about $4.5 million on policing each year.
But at a heated, standing-room only meeting in October, council voted against joining the 6,200member force. The decision highlighted concerns about contracting out, including keeping the price down in subsequent contracts, guaranteeing response times and familiarity with the community about 100 km east of Toronto.
Port Hope’s OPP supporters, however, said the worries were groundless and based on sentimentality.
“The OPP is, in fact, a very effective, efficient service and not a highcost service on a comparative basis,” said Inspector Bert McDonald, who manages the OPP’s municipal policing bureau.
He said policing costs are up across the country but, on average, municipal policing costs $282 per citizen versus $160 for contract OPP policing.
Joining a larger operation can re- duce costs including administration, dispatch and specialized officers like homicide detectives. Several communities can be policed out of a single OPP detachment, allowing extra officers to respond to nearby areas if needed and to provincial duties on highways, waterways and provincial parks. For Atikokan, about 210 km northwest of Thunder Bay, the costs of maintaining a police force in northern Ontario and keeping up with evolving technology were enough to sell the switch in 2005. “We just don’t have the resources to keep up with policing in 2012. Small towns have a hard time,” said Mayor Dennis Brown, adding the contract has worked out well and policing is less of a “headache” now. But for all the cost-saving potential, some mayors say they’re dreading the end of a two-year wage freeze for OPP officers in 2014. Their contract, negotiated by the province, will give them an 8.5 per cent increase once the freeze ends and make them Ontario’s highestpaid police. While mayors of towns that have made the switch say there has been no noticeable increase in average response time or crime rate, there’s a feeling of loss of control in some communities in terms of deployment. Although towns set up their own police boards to oversee the local OPP, it’s not enough for some. “The province has a 30,000-foot view. It’s providing a cookie-cutter model for all municipalities when the costs of service and the needs vary from one place to the other,” said Mayor Ken Hewitt of Haldimand, which got rid of its regional force in 1998. That’s why Fenik has been trying to get a memorandum of understanding with more than 20 items for “made-in-Perth” OPP policing. “It’s for more oversight and making sure we can keep our eyes on what’s happening and have some control,” Fenik said.
McDonald said there can be customization, to an extent.
“We’re a provincial service,” he said. “We provide policing to 322 municipalities, so we do need some standardization in our approach and in the way we charge municipalities.”
The OPP is mandated to provide policing to towns that don’t have a force, even if they don’t have a formal contract.
There are 150 contract municipalities and 172 non-contract municipalities.
The issue has already created controversy in Brockville, where council was supposed to vote Nov. 20 on whether to request an OPP cost estimate. But the vote was deferred to April.
Police Chief John Gardiner, echoing concerns heard across the province, said he wants to keep the 42member force and not just because of its 180-year history.
Although the officers may switch to the local OPP at first, he said transfers over time would amount to much more than changing uniforms and badges.
Gardiner said he doesn’t want to let go of local initiatives, including a mental health crisis response team and Brockville officers getting to know students in schools. “We know our community, we have deep roots in our community,” he said. “The police service has grown with the community and has become established as an institution.”
Brockville, however, needs to find savings in order to grow, said Mayor David Henderson. But he realizes the force’s heritage will come into play.
“That will be a factor. You celebrate your community spirit and your culture.
“But if something makes sense to move on, that’s a question to be discussed.”