Police accord too long coming
Times Colonist Editorial
April 22, 2014
The 10-year deal reached last week by Victoria and Esquimalt answers some of Esquimalt’s concerns and eases tensions, but it doesn’t bring major changes in day-to-day policing.
It’s something that should have and could have been worked out at least three years ago.
The agreement doesn’t increase the number of officers but guarantees that Esquimalt will get 25 officers specifically assigned to the community. Some police cruisers will carry the Esquimalt logo, but the name won’t change, despite a recommendation from a provincially appointed mediator that the name include both municipalities.
The agreement also allows the mayors of the two municipalities to share the chairmanship of the police board, which in the past has been headed by Victoria’s mayor.
Esquimalt will save some money, eventually, paying 14.7 per cent of policing costs in 2016, down from 15.2 per cent in 2014. But it will take a while — first, Esquimalt will have to pay Victoria $142,000 for previous police budget increase it refused to cover. The change in the cost-sharing formula will save about $330,000 over three years, about the amount Esquimalt spent in its failed attempt to ditch the Victoria Police Department contract in favour of the RCMP.
It’s good to have an agreement, but the time and money could have been better spent making the regional police model work than on a power struggle in which front-line officers were the pawns.
Relations between Esquimalt and Victoria have been uneasy since the two police services were amalgamated on Jan. 1, 2003, in what some called a shotgun wedding. A provincial audit in 2009 did not reveal serious deficits in the level or quality of policing in Esquimalt, but the report suggested the arrangement should be revised to allow Esquimalt to contract for policing services with an independent municipal police department in the CRD.
Esquimalt council voted in 2011 to cancel the contract with VicPD in favour of a deal with the RCMP. The province rejected that move and appointed a mediator to help repair the relationship.
It looks like counselling has worked and the marriage is still intact. While Esquimalt was never short-changed on police services under the arrangement, perceptions are realities that need to be dealt with. In a lopsided partnership, it is possible for the smaller partner to be overlooked, so it pays to take a stand.
With issues of control and money out of the way, the force can focus on policing without political distractions.
The new deal includes a provision that “any other municipality in the capital region may be added as a party to the agreement in the future.” A regional police force is an idea that has been around as long as there has been a multiplicity of municipalities, and while that line in the VicPD contract doesn’t signal regional amalgamation, it keeps the hope alive.
The Esquimalt-Victoria agreement shows that it can be done, but it also shows that it must be done carefully, and that local perspectives must be considered and respected if a relationship is to work.
When the two police forces were amalgamated in 2003, Insp. John Drucker, who was put in charge of policing in Esquimalt, spoke about the importance of amalgamation, citing a situation where a car could be involved in a robbery in Saanich, driven to Victoria and dumped in Esquimalt. He pointed to a map of Victoria and Esquimalt and said: “This is what you’d see if you looked down from an airplane or a satellite. It’s one city and it should be policed as one city.”
What was true in 2003 is true today, not just for two municipalities, but the whole capital region. It doesn’t make sense to have a patchwork of services — whether it’s policing, emergency dispatch, sewage or composting — when the public would be better served by a more integrated approach.
© Copyright Times Colonist
Times Colonist Editorial
April 22, 2014
The 10-year deal reached last week by Victoria and Esquimalt answers some of Esquimalt’s concerns and eases tensions, but it doesn’t bring major changes in day-to-day policing.
It’s something that should have and could have been worked out at least three years ago.
The agreement doesn’t increase the number of officers but guarantees that Esquimalt will get 25 officers specifically assigned to the community. Some police cruisers will carry the Esquimalt logo, but the name won’t change, despite a recommendation from a provincially appointed mediator that the name include both municipalities.
The agreement also allows the mayors of the two municipalities to share the chairmanship of the police board, which in the past has been headed by Victoria’s mayor.
Esquimalt will save some money, eventually, paying 14.7 per cent of policing costs in 2016, down from 15.2 per cent in 2014. But it will take a while — first, Esquimalt will have to pay Victoria $142,000 for previous police budget increase it refused to cover. The change in the cost-sharing formula will save about $330,000 over three years, about the amount Esquimalt spent in its failed attempt to ditch the Victoria Police Department contract in favour of the RCMP.
It’s good to have an agreement, but the time and money could have been better spent making the regional police model work than on a power struggle in which front-line officers were the pawns.
Relations between Esquimalt and Victoria have been uneasy since the two police services were amalgamated on Jan. 1, 2003, in what some called a shotgun wedding. A provincial audit in 2009 did not reveal serious deficits in the level or quality of policing in Esquimalt, but the report suggested the arrangement should be revised to allow Esquimalt to contract for policing services with an independent municipal police department in the CRD.
Esquimalt council voted in 2011 to cancel the contract with VicPD in favour of a deal with the RCMP. The province rejected that move and appointed a mediator to help repair the relationship.
It looks like counselling has worked and the marriage is still intact. While Esquimalt was never short-changed on police services under the arrangement, perceptions are realities that need to be dealt with. In a lopsided partnership, it is possible for the smaller partner to be overlooked, so it pays to take a stand.
With issues of control and money out of the way, the force can focus on policing without political distractions.
The new deal includes a provision that “any other municipality in the capital region may be added as a party to the agreement in the future.” A regional police force is an idea that has been around as long as there has been a multiplicity of municipalities, and while that line in the VicPD contract doesn’t signal regional amalgamation, it keeps the hope alive.
The Esquimalt-Victoria agreement shows that it can be done, but it also shows that it must be done carefully, and that local perspectives must be considered and respected if a relationship is to work.
When the two police forces were amalgamated in 2003, Insp. John Drucker, who was put in charge of policing in Esquimalt, spoke about the importance of amalgamation, citing a situation where a car could be involved in a robbery in Saanich, driven to Victoria and dumped in Esquimalt. He pointed to a map of Victoria and Esquimalt and said: “This is what you’d see if you looked down from an airplane or a satellite. It’s one city and it should be policed as one city.”
What was true in 2003 is true today, not just for two municipalities, but the whole capital region. It doesn’t make sense to have a patchwork of services — whether it’s policing, emergency dispatch, sewage or composting — when the public would be better served by a more integrated approach.
© Copyright Times Colonist