First meeting of Essex County Police Service Board-North takes place
On April 1, the Province’s Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 (CSPA) came into effect, which merged municipal Police Services Boards.
The very first meeting for the Essex County Police Service Board-North committee took place at the Town of Tecumseh Municipal Building on Monday, April 21, which had members affirmed or sworn in, a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson for the period until the date of the first meeting of 2025 were appointed, and the next steps in moving forward in forming procedures and protocols were approved.
With requests from local municipalities, the Province agreed that there be two boards for this area that are served by the OPP. Essex joined the Town of Tecumseh and the Municipality of Lakeshore on the Essex County Police Service Board-North.
The Essex County Police Service Board-South Board includes Leamington, Kingsville, Pelee Township, and Caldwell First Nation.
The new Essex County Police Service Board-North will include one member of Council from each municipality, which is being held by the Mayors for Essex, Tecumseh, and Lakeshore. It also includes four community representatives and two provincial appointment seats, for a total board composition of nine.
Essex Council recently appointed former Essex Police Services Board member Dave Kigar as its community rep on the amalgamated Board.
During the inaugural meeting for the Essex County Police Service Board-North, Kigar was voted Vice Chairperson, while Tecumseh’s Community Rep Paul Sweet was elected as Chairperson.
The New Board voted to host its meetings on the second Monday of the month at 10am. The first four meetings will take place in Tecumseh, before being hosted in Essex and Lakeshore. Every meeting will be livestreamed, as is required by the Province.
A schedule will come back to the Board in the future.
Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy took a moment to voice her concern that the intention is to host a meeting for the Essex County Police Service Board-North every other month. When each municipality had its own board, they were hosted once a month. She had concern that hosting the meetings for three communities every other month would be a drop in service-level.
“We are dropping the frequency of our meetings and we are covering more territory,” she pointed out to fellow members of the Board.
During the training session each of the Board members had to take, she noted it highlighted transparency, accountability, and building public trust, and was not sure reducing the number of meetings was a way to accomplish that goal.
Later in the meeting, Chairperson Sweet noted that can be discussed at the next meeting.
The next Essex County Police Service Board-North will be held on June 10 in Tecumseh at 10am.In the meantime, a subcommittee of the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Lakeshore Community Rep Julie Johnston will review administrative policies, and Administration will start drafting policies for procedures, Board composition and appointment, travel, records management, freedom of information, and communications.
It was noted during the meeting that the Board could discuss selecting a different name in the future. More information will be provided when it is made available from the Ministry.
Ron LeClair, Advisor-Zone 6 Inspectorate of Policing, congratulated the Board and the administration from the involved municipalities on getting to this point, noting it was not always easy.
He noted there are other communities that are not as far along in terms of launching their amalgamated boards.
OPP Staff Sergeant Jamie Smith presented the monthly overview for March during the meeting.
In March, officers responded to 3,463 calls for service in the five locally OPP policed municipalities. Of those calls, 442 were for Essex. That was quite a bit higher compared to the same month last year, where there were 370. Lakeshore had 732 calls and Tecumseh had 454.
Overall, in locally policed OPP communities, Smith noted there was a 14.4% increase in Calls for Service in March 2024, compared to March 2023.Essex’s top calls for service for March included: 44 property checks, 28 community service initiatives, 25 R.I.D.E., 25 by-law, 24 trafficcomplaints,22domestic, 22 suspicion person, 21 false alarm, 21 traffic enforcement, and 19 motor vehicle collisions.
Bondy added that while the importance of property checks is recognized, the former Essex Police Services Board often spoke of wanting traffic enforcement to be more of a priority.
She also spoke of wanting to see a continuous Staff Sergeant in place in Essex.
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara spoke of wanting to host a walkabout at parks and public spaces with police to look at community safety in terms of better lighting and visibility to avoid crime.
Smith said he would look into arranging this type of walkabout event.
It was noted during the meeting, Tecumseh has taken the lead of overseeing the administration of the Board on a fee for service basis, with costs including things like overhead expenses. The Budget is a work in progress and will be brought forward in the near future.
In terms of administrative support, the direction will recommend taking on a part-time administrative support position for the Board. The costing will be included in the Board Budget to come.
Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
