Policing must be affordable

Obscenely high and unsustainable policing costs. OPP bills are destroying communities its officers are supposed to protect. Apparent self-interest is cloaked in the guise of public safety needs. Where is the political outrage while OPP costs continue to climb? Who is going to bring policing costs in this province under control?

Policing must be affordable

Postby Thomas » Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:08 pm

$5.2 million is a stunning figure.

As Chad Ingram reports in this week’s paper, $5.2 million is the increase Haliburton County taxpayers will be paying if the proposed new billing model for the Ontario Provincial Police goes through.

The amount has been discussed many ways in recent months – increase per taxpayer, percentage increase by municipality – but it has never been consolidated.

The figure brings home just how unaffordable this new model is for our municipality.

Each taxpayer would feel a hit of about $369 (up about $200 depending on which municipality you live in).

County treasurer Laura Janke told a special session of council that, at $8.5 million, Haliburton County would be paying for 54 officers, but our complement wouldn’t be going up from the current 29.
Rightfully, some councillors are pushing to examine other policing models.

The Police Services Act allows for municipalities to choose their law enforcement services and that could mean having a countywide police force.

It could also mean joining with other municipalities that either already have a police force or creating a new one together.

And while it is prudent to investigate our options and alternatives, the best-case scenario would be reworking the billing model.

This new model wasn’t designed to generate more money for the OPP – it actually came about because some municipalities pay far more than others.

Bancroft, for example, has been paying $600 per household, a far cry from the $134 paid in Highlands East, its neighbouring municipality.

So clearly something has to change.

Ideally, the model would be revamped to maintain the police we already have, but allow each area to determine its own service levels and costs.

Decisions surrounding the number of officers and the cost of their contracts have historically been out of the county’s hands.

Municipalities foot the bill, but have little input or cost controls.

Important work is being done by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to get a model that is fair to all parties both through formal advocacy and with a new committee recently established. (Haliburton has a voice on that committee through Minden Hills Reeve Barb Reid.)

The model as it stands is too great a weight on the people of this county and of the nearly 200 more across the province.

For now, we should wait to see what effect AMO can have on the situation. At the same time, alternatives must be considered.

While we don’t need a new police force, we do need one we can afford.

http://www.haliburtonecho.ca/2014/02/18 ... affordable
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