County Wide Policing is right for Cobourg
Tomorrow will be the last Public Meeting in Cobourg on the subject of the Cobourg Police Force being replaced by County wide policing by the OPP . As Mike Hick has succinctly described in the Cobourg Star today, there are three reasons why this is a good idea:
- Cost saving - Cobourg would save $1.9M out of a total town budget of $17M or 11%. Since the OPP will be providing the same service, it would be irresponsible of the council to vote against the OPP. If they voted in favour of keeping the status quo, they would be in effect voting for a tax increase of that amount. There would be an appeal to the Province to replace them as incompetent if they brought in such an increase in a normal budget session!
- Improved management - the Police services boards over the past several years cannot point to any success in hring a Police Chief nor in getting co-operation with nearby Police Forces. So it’s clear that it needs to go up one level to the County. Recruiting a chief from the ranks of the much larger OPP and recruiting the board from the larger area of the county can only be major improvements.
- Better job environment for the police officers resulting in even better police performance. Whether in a Police Force or in Government or in any type of employment, there are more job opportunities, more learning and more training in a larger pool than in a group as small as the Cobourg Police Force.
The items still being discussed do not change this overall picture - just the fine detail. And the objections being raised about degraded service are all speculation. Let’s hope the council does the right thing this time at least - if not, hopefully the county will do it for them. Their vote is June 16 and the County vote is scheduled for July.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
John
Just a copy of a letter that I sent to the CDS and it may not answer all of your points but it does point out just how illusory the savings are. What for instance if the Province cuts back or eliminates the grants?
In Mr Schumann’s letter of the 9th of June he admits to being no closer to making a decision, then than he was before he attended a public meeting to discuss the pros and cons of switching police services.
Let me condense the argument. Cobourg is being promised 1.9 million dollars worth of savings a year if we switch to the OPP. These savings have nothing to do with the OPP costs being cheaper, in fact they are not. The savings come about because of the unnecessary Cobourg police communications department being removed, using cheaper supervision and having a hand out for government grants and rebates.
So Mr. Schumann, we have to have faith that the government will never change it’s mind about the continuance of grants (for a reality check see “government financing between the years of 1990 and 1996″ to discover how grants are inviolate - not). The Police communications centre is to be disbanded but the County plans a super-duper Fire communications centre so where’s the saving there? One could say that the only change so far would be the loss of two senior Cobourg police officers, but we will end up paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance. How’s the savings so far?
I agree with Mr Schumann, confusion abounds, so much so that most thinking people should hold an open mind and keep counsel with the facts. Just remember as said at the meeting by a supporter of the change, “If somebody promised the exact same service for 36% less why wouldn’t you go for it?” If this statement had been uttered by a person selling an investment one would query it, wouldn’t they? In this case the supposition is being proposed by a man from the government, wouldn’t you query it just a bit? I know I do.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Ooops and John I forgot the half a million revenue for screening income
June 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
If savings were guaranteed to be applied to the tax bill in their entirety, and if terms to address increases in future contracts, of which there will be many, were enshrined in this first contract, then there would be some specific and realizable benefits to changing service providers. As an example of what can happen, think back to the contract between Cobourg Police and Hamilton Township just a few years ago, and how that played out at the first renewal stage. If there is a change, net benefits are extremely suspect when the Fire Department is already sniffing around the cookie jar and putting dibs on future new money to create a state of the art communications network to replace the police communications system when it is dismantled, just as Ben described earlier (the Chief has already addressed Council on this). I think we’re being offered “relatively equal” service levels instead of “same” service levels, and there is going to be a huge difference in these terms as service levels are adjusted to reflect availability of OPP resources, with rebates for services NOT delivered when OPP can’t muster the troops for any number of yet to be experienced reasons. When these actually happen, no amount of rebate will correct the damage done by the inevitable loss of service at some critical time, or more likely times (plural). At that point, the loss of our present service will likely be lamented and regrets will be expressed, while the thresholds for the seriousness of crimes that rate present response levels will disappear into unforeseen heights. There is demonstrated truth in the saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!” There’s a general rule in business that you usually get what you pay for, provided you make sure you get what you pay for. That rule also applies here and provides some indication of what’s in store, either way.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I guess Miriam Mutton, Bob Spooner and Dean McCaughey all agree with Bill MacDonald that “the people of Cobourg will support their police force for $4 per week”. That’s over $200 a year for zero value - the OPP is at least equivalent! Now we know which councillors do not really care about the taxpayers’ money. I had thought Miriam at least was progressive - it appears not.
It seems to me that the naysayers have a desire to keep small town characteristics in Cobourg. A big shame since it seems that with Brighton changing their mind and Port Hope never voting for any kind of change, it’s now a lost cause.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Who cares about the taxpayer’s money? Obviously not the Mayor, he wasn’t going to rebate the savings he wants to build another monument, perhaps the Peter Delanty Memorial Centre.
“The OPP is at least equivalent” - that’s the point we don’t want “at least” we wanted a guarantee of the same. Culdn’t get one so no change!