To serve and protect

Police services costs set to jump in 2014

Updated on Wednesday May 15, 2013.
The print edition of this story contains an incorrect calculation of the impact of rising police costs on the municipality in 2014. It has been corrected in this version.

It was just before 3 p.m. on a quiet afternoon in Wellington 10 days ago when the OPP sport utility vehicle sailed through the village. With lights flashing and sirens piercing the air, bystanders stood agape as the cruiser whizzed by—they would estimate the speed of the vehicle at more than 100 kilometres an hour. Some feared they were about to witness a tragedy. Wellington offers a narrow passage through its core—pedestrians taking care of business, seniors running errands, moms heading to pick up children from school—the lights at the main corner are viewed more as advice than rule by folks busy going to and fro.

Some were still visibly shaken by what they had seen, long after the police vehicle had passed through the village unscathed. Afterwards OPP Sgt. Lee Abrames explained to the Times that emergency response vehicles are exempt from speed limit regulations. Abrames spoke to the officer and learned he was responding to a possible break and enter in progress. The officer was operating within regulations.

Abrames explained, too, that had something bad happened as a result of the officer’s speed, he would be held fully accountable for his actions.

The incident has ignited fresh concerns about the age of the police officers who serve this community and their sensitivity to its particular needs.

“We get a lot of young single officers,” said Police Services Board Chair Robert Quaiff. “There isn’t work for their spouses here. So we get the very young and they are hell bent for action—looking to do their job.”

The veteran police services board chair adds that the job is very different in Prince Edward County than other regions in the province.

“Given the nature of the crimes here, in my opinion, we don’t warrant the number of officers we have.”

RISING COSTS

It is not just behaviour of some individuals that worries Quaiff. The cost of policing is soaring in this community and is set to take another eye-watering hike in January.

In 2003 policing services were budgeted $2.7 million in Prince Edward County. Next year our police services costs are expected to exceed $5.5 million—an increase of more than 100 per cent in a decade.

The key driver of the increase in costs is salaries and benefits, which are set to increase by 8.55 per cent on January 1. The province negotiated a wage freeze with the OPP for 2012 and 2013—but not before giving them a five per cent increase and a promise that in 2014 they would once again become the highest paid police force in the province.

That means an 8.55 per cent increase next year, which Quaiff calculates will add more than $400,000 to its policing costs next year.

“What kind of government tells its police they are going to freeze their wages for two years— but promises them they will be the highest paid police force in Ontario?” asked Quaiff.

WOLF AND CHICKENS

The Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) know its force faces a challenge selling these stiff increases to municipalities already struggling to pay for escalating costs. It has agreed to form a working group with the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards (OAPSB) to examine ways to lower costs. But Quaiff says the forum is already stacked against municipalities, as the group looking into rising police costs is led by an ex-police officer. “The wolf is looking after the chicken pen,” said Quaiff.

CONTRACT HAZARDS

He is worried too that the County’s contract comes up for renewal in just over 18 months’ time; other issues are bubbling just below the surface.

Currently the County is served by 42 uniformed officers, seven of whom are paid by the province, another two by the federal government. The arrangement relates to a time when the province owned Highways 33 and 49, and is also driven by the popularity of Sandbanks Provincial Park in the summertime.

Quaiff figures that since the province downloaded Highways 33 and 49 nearly a decade ago, it will be looking to offload the costs of policing them, too. He says the County could appeal such a move, and that it doesn’t need these officers, but the final decision would be made by a third-party agency.

“They could rule the OPP numbers municipalities require ten additional officers as well as the ones they have,” said Quaiff. “It’s frustrating as hell.”

He adds that intervention by wardens to apply political pressure to slow the rise in policing costs by a group of Ontario Mayors in the form of the Mayor’s Coalition on affordable policing might backfire. He says that while support is welcome, it may pose a trap for communities such as Prince Edward.

This is because while costs are rising rapidly in Prince Edward County, compared with other communities, they appear relatively low. Timmins residents, for example, pay about $1,500 per household for policing services. County residents pay $386 per household.

Many mayors eye equalization of police services costs between municipalities as the quickest way to ease their burden—with lower-cost municipalities such as Prince Edward County paying more to offset costs in communities that are more expensive to police. Quaiff sees this as fundamentally unfair, yet worries it may pose an appealing option to a government eager to be seen responding to some rural communities without putting money on the table. “I don’t want anymore part of the Mayors’ coalition,” said Quaiff. “But of course that is up the mayor.”

He says the OAPSB is doing the job of voicing these concerns to the province—that the Mayors’ Coalition risks muddying the process in a way that could cost County residents much more.

Currently the province pays about a fifth of the wages for the detachment commander and four sergeants. The municipality of Bradford-West Gwillimbury is currently negotiating with the OPP to replace their local force. The province is expecting that community to pay the full cost of its sergeants.

“My personal opinion is that the municipality should not be in the policing business at all,” said Quaiff. “The province has full and complete authority. They negotiate police salaries and the municipalities have no say.”