As the region’s population continues to grow, Northumberland County council has voted in favour of review policing services for the central Ontario region.
Currently, the Ontario Provincial Police services most of the county’s townships and municipalities with the exception of the towns of Cobourg and Port Hope, which each have their own municipal police service. OPP also serves the rural region of the Municipality of Port Hope.
However, the three police services often combine resources for investigations.
Port Hope Police Service Chief Tim Farquharson says smaller services such as his don’t always have a full complement of police resources.
“As a smaller police service, you don’t necessarily have a K9 unit, full-time ERT or part-time emergency response team, so you rely on other police forces,” he said.
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The review by consultant Strategy Corp aims to look at the county’s future needs for emergency services and the costs involved.
It could reignite a discussion over 17 years ago about potentially merging police operations.
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