So the official mouth pieces for the city are floating a piece with the Police Brotherhood, surprise, surprise, wanting more officers hired.
They want a discussion. And this writer agrees that there needs to be a discussion, because of the end of the day there are valid concerns and questions.
I think it’s safe to say that we want well trained, well supported officers, and enough of them on the service to do a fine job.
Here are where the rivers splinter off though. We have a situation where the OPP service SD&G for about a third less, while have nearly double the population and a much larger area to serve.
That simply doesn’t make sense. Likewise, the per capita incomes and crimes rates are higher and lower than in Cornwall. People in Ingleside and Lancaster don’t seem to generate that much crime. Likewise, we have an aging population and a problem of keeping young people here. That includes our hoodlums and gangsters who find much greener pastures in Ottawa, or Montreal.
The police sadly won’t disclose much information about budgets or actual crime. Police blotters for the OPP are sparse, and the Cornwall Police essentially won’t give out info unless you fight for it.
When police hide basic info that should be a red flag for everyone; especially when you pay for a public service.
Same for our Fire Service locally where some have estimated that Cornwall tax payers are paying as much for training as actual fire service.
According to info spoon fed to official media mouth pieces, we have 88 sworn officers. Divided by the budget of approximately $20M that comes out to over a whopping $270,000 per officer. A 1st Class Constable earns about $100K. Does that give a reasonable person a clue that the CPS has some major explaining to do?
Sadly, Cornwall being Cornwall we do not have a Council or mayor that will question budgets. Nor have we really had much push on that in the past. In fact last time a councilor spoke up about it they were vilified by the official mouthpieces for the city and the union of course.
Likewise, our politicians don’t have the testicular fortitude to speak to some basics, which is there is a cost of policing in Cornwall that we are paying because of our proximity to Akwesasne and the border crossing that Cornwall residents shouldn’t have to be paying for.
But this should be a union question too, because IF millions of dollars are being slushed or misspent those would be Benjamins that could be used to support officers or add actual front line police to the service.
At the end of the day we need a Doug Ford style forensic audit of the CPS. We need the OPP to give a costing for service, but most importantly we need accurate and real information given to the public so that a real consultation and discussion can occur.
Then we can answer the Police Brotherhood more concisely and clearly.
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