Owen Sound is moving towards a new committee to look at ways to modernize the city's police department.
Council passed a motion Monday's meeting introduced by Mayor Ian Boddy to instruct the city manager to prepare terms of reference to create a transformational task force that will inform council how to best modernize the structure and service delivery options of the Owen Sound Police Service which will lead to the delivering police services more efficiently and effectively to the citizens of Owen Sound.
This comes after a motion introduced by Coun. John Tamming on June 29 to effectively “defund” the city's police service by 30 per cent was voted down. No other councillors supported the proposal by Tamming, which would have seen council provide notice to the Owen Sound Police Services Board that it won't approve any future city police budget above $7.5-million, while allocating those savings to tax savings and enhanced supports for the homeless, those with addictions and those with mental health challenges.
Boddy acknowledges concern has been expressed several times with regard to the city's police budget. He notes there is a protocol agreement between council and the Owen Sound Police Services Board to have discussions, annual meetings and to be able to have open dialogue about the budget and policing moving forward.
“We've been talking about having that discussion, but we seem to not move it forward the way we need too,” Boddy says. “This hopefully takes the steps to start the dialogue.”
Boddy expects the city manager's report will detail who will sit on the task force. He suggests it could include the city manager, chief of police, police board chair and possibly other elected councillors or community members.
Owen Sound’s mayor also anticipates “how we do policing” will be part of the focus of the new task force.
“Just trying to figure out who can be at the table and can have a hard look at what we're doing,” Boddy says. “The big question is: what level of policing does Owen Sound want?”
“We can cut departments, but is that really what you want,” Boddy continues. “What are the consequences of those departments? How much money do they save? What level of policing do we want is really the big discussion.