Policing and Community Engagement

One of the Key Takeaways from the Baylor report was for North Bay to improve communication to counter the abysmally low public trust numbers.  Once that improved, we were to use public engagement to form a collective vision and shape our future.  Using that process a Strategic Plan was developed and now we need to put it into action.

That Strategic Plan recognizes that the city needs to communicate better.  So, rather than run from the suggestion put forward by the North Bay Taxpayers Association (NBTA), it should be used as an opportunity to openly discuss the needs and wants of this community in relation to its security force and how either option (assuming there are only two) can best be modified to suit the people they serve.

There are costs to getting what we want and just going with the current lowest cost provider may not match what the public wants.  The NBTA has a clear objective in lowering the tax burden, but in today's society the lowest tax rate does not necessarily guarantee the best alternative.  There is also the quality of service, ability to control the operation and local economic impact to be considered.  They may be a little more difficult to measure, but they are just as important as cost, if not, moreso.

One of the important considerations would be the amount of information available to your community...the North Bay Police Annual Report gives the North Bay public a lot more information about our community than the OPP Annual Report would.

The OPP costing would not automatically guarantee a lower policing cost than North Bay Police, given the experience in Owen Sound.   The OPP have stated they would still need a new police station here, so there would be no savings there and the OPP labour agreement that guarantees their officers will be the highest paid in Ontario keeps upward pressure on their labour costs.  

But this costing would be an opportunity for the North Bay Police Force to build on their efforts to use innovation to deal with unaddressed health issues that ultimately fall to police to deal with.  Perhaps they could create lower paid positions that could perform bylaw enforcement and eliminate the contract price with Commissionaires Ottawa that must include a profit margin.  

The North Bay Humane Society is sole sourced contracted to do Animal Welfare and Control in addition to bylaw enforcement.  If the North Bay Police could take over the enforcement, maybe there could be competitive bids for the Animal Welfare and Control, which together with animal bylaw enforcement currently costs North Bay $342,000 per year.

Maybe North Bay Police could be a little more aggressive in pursuing contracts with surrounding municipalities like East Ferris and/or Powassan if they upgraded their radio system.  West Nipissing may be in the market for a new police provider if the voting public vetos the split decision made by that council to disband their force.  Adding more communities like Callander to the contract could produce enough economies of scale to tip the balance in a local force's favour.

A public process would allow a full review of the costs and risks associated with each force and from that an informed assessment of the value provided by them.  Hopefully our current councillors will see the merit in this approach.