Huron County council has asked staff to look into developing a communications program to inform residents on how they can help reduce the cost of policing.
Following a recent presentation by the Huron County OPP Detachment Inspector that outlined how the number of calls can contribute to higher costs, councillor Dave Jewitt made the motion to ask for staff's help in formulating a communications strategy.
Jewitt points out almost all of the lower-tier municipalities are struggling with increases to their policing costs and if they can make people aware of the types of crimes that are generating more calls they may be able to eliminate some of them.
Council was told one of the major contributors are false 9-1-1 calls -- either pocket dials or calls made by mistake. Officers are required to respond to each one of those calls and council was told the number of them made each year is significant.
Jewitt says rather than each municipality dealing with the problem on their own, a county-wide communications plan might be cheaper and more effective.
