Municipalities in Huron County and throughout Ontario have struggled with increased policing costs this year and Huron East was no exception.
OPP Seargent Kevin Hummel was part of a delegation to Huron East council recently, and he says there are some legitimate reasons for the increase.
Hummel explains the billing model had to be adjusted to address some of the inequities in the old system, in which some communities were paying as little seven dollars per household for policing, while others were paying as much as $900.
Under the new model the average across the province is $352.
Hummel says the adjustment was significant for some municipalities, and so it was phased in over as much as five years to bring costs up to where they should be. The new model was changed from households to properties to include commercial and industrial properties.
Hummel says Huron East has now reached its new costing level and any increases going forward will be very small.
Hummel adds there are things a municipality can do to reduce their costs by reducing the number of calls for service. For instance, Citizen On-line Reporting can be used for minor property damage or thefts that don't require the presence of an officer, and that can be found on the OPP web site.
Hummel also suggests that municipal officials communicate with the OPP detachment supervisor about the level of service they want, or anything they feel they should be getting that they're not, so that both the municipality and the OPP understand what is expected.
