by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
WHIEWATER REGION (Cobden) — Sergeant Carlo Berardi from the Municipal policing bureau, Renfrew OPP Detachment Commander Inspector Colin Slight, OPP Pembroke Renfrew Detachment Commander Inspector Mark Wolfe and Staff Sergeant Karl Duewel spoke to Whitewater Region council about various aspects of policing, including the history of the OPP billing, the current billing model, how the township’s residents were affected and policing in general for the municipality.
At the end of the one-and-a-half hour meeting, Insp. Wolfe said, “As the detachment commander, and Insp. Slight said the same, all four of us, feel very confident that your community is safe, that we’re ready for the challenges we face through focus patrol, direct patrol, community mobilization and pro-active programs we have.
“We’re in a good position to keep your community safe.”
The Billing
Sgt. Berardi noted on Jan. 1, 2015, a new billing policy went into affect that made policing costs fair to all municipalities it policed throughout Ontario. He noted prior to that date, there was a wide variable in how much municipalities were charged for policing. He said some municipalities were charged $10 per property while others were charged $100 per property.
The current billing model was developed after more than two years of consultation and discussion with municipality and policing partners, he said.
There are currently 323 municipalities policed by the OPP through 163 detachments, he said. The OPP budget for base calls in 2017 is $402.1 million. However, the total budget is just over one billion dollars. Whitewater Region’s estimated 2017 bill is just over $1 million.
“The billing model is based on the rationale that all OPP policed communities should pay an equitable share for the provision of policing services,” Sgt. Berardi said.
There is a base service level for infrastructure, supervision, administration and front-line policing, he said. For municipalities to have trained and properly equipped police officers available at all times, there is a cost associated with this availability, he explained.
The OPP Municipal Cost Recovery has two categories in determining how much each municipality is charged, he said. There is the base service, which covers legislated activities, pro-active policing, officer training and administrative duties and all inspector and staff sergeant positions. The Calls for Service recovery is based on crime calls, provincial statutes, motor vehicle collisions, general calls for service.
There are also additional costs for some municipalities, including overtime, court security, cleaning/caretakers, accommodations and enhancements. Prisoner transportation is shared by all municipalities, Sgt. Berardi said.
Whitewater Region’s bill for 2017 works out to $287.20 per property, he said. There is a total of 3,729 properties, which breaks down to 3,534 households and 195 commercial and industrial.
Sgt. Berardi reviewed the township’s statement, explaining how the costs were determined in the two categories and then the additional costs.
He said Whitewater Region is only charged for costs for one detachment, even though it is served by two.
Councillor Charlene Jackson noted the township has a major highway going through it and wondered if the traffic offences that occur on it are charged to the municipality.
Sgt. Berardi said the township is charged for all traffic offences, including the investigation of accidents, except for those that occur on the provincial highway.
He noted the only way for the municipality to save money on its bill is to reduce the calls for service – and one way to do that, and it has been happening, is to stop the pocket calls to 911, he said. These are 911 calls that occur when people who have their cell phones in a pocket and for whatever reason, it would dial 911.
“If you can bring your calls for service down with respect to the province, then you will save money,” Sgt. Berardi said.
Local detachment information
Insp. Slight and Insp. Wolfe each spoke about their detachments, including the strategic plan and data in relation to Whitewater Region.
The OPP strategic plan focuses on five pillars – leadership, healthy workforce; technology; analytics and reinvestment, Insp. Slight said.
The OPP continues to develop leaders so it can successfully build for the future, he said.
“We are looking to the future at all times,” Insp. Slight said. “Leadership is at every level of our organization, from bottom to top.”
There is a wellness unit that is promoting overall wellness because, “You can’t have mental wellness if you don’t have physical wellness as well,” he added.
There is always new technology being developed and the OPP updates whenever it can, Insp. Slight said. As an example, officers are now dictating reports and occurrences and trained clerks are doing the data entry, which is much more time efficient, he said. The long term is voice to text, he added.
There are detachment and regional analysts who sift through the data to find where the resources need to be placed, he said.
“Random patrol is not an effective tool when trying to deal with some things,” Insp. Slight said.
As for reinvestment, where efficiencies are found, money is found, and that is reinvested in areas the OPP needs to pay attention to, he said.
Renfrew Detachment
Looking at Whitewater Region’s data as it relates to the Renfrew OPP detachment, Insp. Slight noted there has been a reduction of almost six percent in assaults between 2015 and 2016, as well as a one percent reduction in criminal domestic violence and an 11 percent reduction in non-criminal domestic violence occurrences.
“We still want to maintain and remain focused on domestic violence that needs to be addressed,” he said.
However, there has been a 7.45 percent increase in break and enters, he stated.
“We are convinced that through effective focused patrol initiatives and the introduction of a community street crime team we will see greater success in property related crime reduction efforts,” Insp. Slight said.
What he is concerned about is the increase in fraud calls. There has been a 143 percent increase, he said. Taking a closer look at the numbers, 150 of the 268 calls came about as a result of phishing, which are telemarketing scams, such as the Canada Revenue Agency calls that were occurring, he said.
The OPP was recording them incorrectly, and once corrected the number of fraud occurrences dropped down to 100, which is still high, he added.
“For phishing occurrences, unless someone has been victimized, you don’t score it as a fraud,” he explained, noting a telephone call is billed three hours while fraud is billed at 6.4 hours.
As for illicit drugs, and changes that could come into effect, Insp. Slight said officers will be able to respond appropriately when the time comes. The root causes of addiction must also be faced in regards to the increased usage of opioids and fentanyl problems.
Officers will continue to focus on the Big Four of traffic, which are seatbelts, speeding, impaired and distracted driving, he said. He noted there has been a 15 percent reduction in accidents.
911 pocket dials have decreased in the last two years due to public education, but the public still needs to be educated to lock their phones before putting them in their pockets, Insp. Slight said.
“It becomes an officer’s safety issue, and a resource issue,” he said “We send two officers to a 911 call, and sometimes they may be travelling at a higher rate of speed, hopefully not too high a speed, but sometimes it is an accelerated response to those types of calls.
“These false calls, or pocket dials, needlessly put our officers at risk and needlessly takes our resources away from other calls of service they could be responding to. It may sound small and trivial, but it increases public safety by reducing those calls and it reduces your bill.”
Insp. Slight said in a 2016 community satisfaction survey, 92.5 percent of the responders were very satisfied/satisfied with the OPP’s ability to work with communities to solve local problems and 99.5 percent of responders felt very safe/safe in their community.
“What that tells me is we are doing something right,” he said. “Your community feels safe, and it’s not always reality, it’s perception. If somebody perceives they aren’t safe, it may not be a reality, but everyone here seemingly feels safe.”
Pembroke Detachment
S/Sgt. Duewel, who is the operations manager with the Pembroke OPP detachment, meets regularly with CPAC (Community Policing Advisory Committee) and has an amazing relationship with them. He has been at this detachment for two years, transferring from Sioux Lookout, where he spent 12 years.
He gave a short review of how much time officers have spent in the municipality, which is the smaller area it patrols compared to Renfrew’s detachment.
He noted Const. Sean Peever, who is the community services officer, has been busy in the community. He is conducting the Grade 6 OPP Kids Program at Beachburg Public School and Our Lady of Grace Catholic School in Westmeath, which is similar to the former DARE program, which is a peer program.
Insp. Wolfe said DARE was from the 90s, which was peer pressure, while today’s youth face different pressures, such as sexting, technology and drugs, a whole bunch of different issues, compared to years ago.
Sgt. Duewel noted Const. Peever has also done bus safety, lock-down drills and walk throughs at the two schools
There was a fraud and scam presentation for the Westmeath seniors group, which was to help them understand what to do when they get the fraudulent phone calls so they are not the victim, he said.
“I encourage you, that if you have areas of concern reach out to us through your CAO or CPAC member,” he said.
Insp. Wolfe said there is borderless policing in this area. Criminals know no boundaries and could be from other municipalities, other detachments. The important thing is to identify them, but everyone has to understand, a criminal does not stop at county or township lines, and that’s why analytic data is important, he said.
“We do an amazing job at investigating (break and enters),” he said. “Our investigations now, when I started, we would go to calls and clear within half an hour, but now we put in a lot more time.
“What you see on tv is kind of true, we get all that data and move forward.”
Insp. Wolfe finished the meeting, “We’re in a good position to keep your community safe.”
