Ontario Mayors Seeking to Limit Policing Costs
A number of municipalities in Ontario have gathered together to form a coalition for addressing what they see as the unsustainable costs of policing in that province:
Driven largely by rural (and northern) municipal representatives, the Mayors Affordable Sustainable Accountable Policing (ASAP) are pressing the issues relating to their inability to exercise significant control over their continuously escalating policing costs. Much of the concerns centres on the lack of leverage felt by municipal authorities in the context of contracts with the Ontario Government for policing provided by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
It is important to emphasize that these municipal leaders are not only objecting to their lack of financial control over their municipal police costs, but also, they are deeply concerned that they have no true civilian governing authority over the goals and objectives of their contracted policing services. This is an ongoing issue that was raised for policy review during the 1990s when the Provincial Government established an Expert Panel on Municipal Police Budgets as part of a larger disentanglement initiative.
While the members of the Coalition have not articulated any specific policy directions to address their fundamental concerns, they are clearly adding their voices to larger questions raised by organizations like the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) will be developing some form of response to this Coalition, however, it is really the OPP that needs to formulate a position that will address the serious concerns of certain Ontario mayors as they witness increasing policing costs.
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| Source: OPP website (2012) |
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