The mayor of Owen Sound is planning to bring a motion which would allow formal discussions to begin between the city and West Grey about a potential joint police force.
West Grey council approved a motion earlier this week to have staff initiate discussions with city representatives, as well as the Owen Sound and West Grey Police Services boards in order to evaluate the feasibility, benefits and potential structure of a “joint municipal police service.”
Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy says he will give notice at council’s meeting next Monday, Sept. 9 that he intends to introduce a motion “to really mirror” what West Grey has decided.
Asked if a potential partnership would be more about finding efficiencies between the two police services or exploring a merger, Boddy says “with anything, you always want to have everything on the table to consider everything.”
“And see where it goes from there. There will be duplication when you have two police forces fairly close,” Boddy explains. “And if there’s a way of working together, being able to do recruitment together, maybe some of the management together. Of course, we already know Owen Sound is doing a lot of dispatch for a lot of police forces.”
Owen Sound’s mayor has long been interested in exploring policing partnerships with neighbouring municipalities. In 2019, council passed a motion from Boddy to have city officials reach out to Hanover and West Grey, as well as other potential municipal partners for discussions towards creating a regional police force.
And in 2022, there was some discussion of Owen Sound Police potentially providing an estimate to West Grey when it was undertaking a police costing process and reviewing its service. But Owen Sound didn’t end up formally engaging with West Grey’s bid process.
Boddy says potential savings for taxpayers is one of goals of pursuing a joint police service. The city’s police budget for this year is $8.57-million. West Grey allocated $4.5-million for police services in its 2024 spending plan.
But aside from cost savings, Boddy says there are also other efficiencies that could be achieved to benefit both Owen Sound and West Grey.
“Recruiting police officers is becoming more difficult. Having them train and doing specialized things is more difficult,” Boddy says. “And the more we can do some of those things together, there’s efficiencies there too.”
“I think this is something we’ve been talking about for a long time,” Boddy continues. “It would be nice to move it ahead and have the discussions and see where we get.”