As the region’s population continues to grow, Northumberland County council has voted in favour of review policing services for the central Ontario region.
Currently, the Ontario Provincial Police services most of the county’s townships and municipalities with the exception of the towns of Cobourg and Port Hope, which each have their own municipal police service. OPP also serves the rural region of the Municipality of Port Hope.
However, the three police services often combine resources for investigations.
Port Hope Police Service Chief Tim Farquharson says smaller services such as his don’t always have a full complement of police resources.
“As a smaller police service, you don’t necessarily have a K9 unit, full-time ERT or part-time emergency response team, so you rely on other police forces,” he said.
The review by consultant Strategy Corp aims to look at the county’s future needs for emergency services and the costs involved.
It could reignite a discussion over 17 years ago about potentially merging police operations.
“Knowing that this study had been already done back in 2007, I simply proposed to update that study, and see if the numbers still make sense, if there’s still opportunity for this to happen,” said Northumberland County warden Brian Ostrander, mayor of the Municipality of Brighton.
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Potential scenarios include maintaining the current services, amalgamating the police services in Cobourg and Port Hope, having OPP police the entire county, or exploring another external service such as the Peterborough Police Service, north of the county.
However, the Cobourg Police Service declined an interview with Global News on the review.
A statement in part from the Town of Cobourg and the police services board said it has “passed motions precluding participation in the county’s amalgamating policing study.”
Ostrander called that decision “a shame.”
“I think we all think that’s a shame, that that decision has been made at the Cobourg level,” he said. “It’d be good to have that data, from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, but there’s other ways of gathering that data.”
A final report is expected in the second half of 2024 for county council to review.
Farquharson said finances will play a key role in any decision.
“Look at inflation, look at the gas prices today,” he said, adding that the average family wants to be safe. “But, it’s incumbent upon leaders — the elected officials — to look for ways to make it even more affordable.”
However, he said community safety remains the top priority.
“Our responsibility is community safety and wellbeing, and we take that seriously,” he said. “And that’s not going to change, no matter what happens.”
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