wouldn’t combining two police services equal amalgamation and not regionalization? would amherstburg ratepayers subsidize windsor?
Category Archives: Policing
Windsor looking to take over Amherstburg police
CBC Windsor reports that “Windsor is pricing out how much it would cost to take over policing in the town of Amherstburg.
The city held a special in-camera council meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss providing a regional police service for Amherstburg.”
Amherstburg to seek OPP costing for police service
important to note! buyouts are severance packages only for those who lose their jobs; someone needs to do legal research on this.
Amherstburg police continue to test body-worn video cameras
Amherstburg Police was scheduled to conclude its study by the end of 2014 and select a body worn camera for patrol officers or shelve the project if not feasible for APS needs.
Now Berthiaume says, “I’m happy with the results so far but we’re still evaluating.”
Human Rights Tribunal Ontario Hearing Reminder
A countdown calendar has been added to the right sidebar regarding the hearing of an Application by James Saxon v. Amherstburg Police Service Board and Amherstburg Police Association and an allegation of discrimination because of age.
The hearing is open to the public and it would be a good opportunity to see taxpayer dollars at work.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Tribunal denied the Amherstburg Police Services Board’s request to dismiss or defer the Application. The Board requested that the Tribunal defer consideration of the Application pending the outcome of collective bargaining between it and the union representing the applicant.
The Tribunal decided, “In my view, deferral is not appropriate in this case since there are no parallel proceedings between the parties. In my view, the fact that the Board and the union representing the applicant will commence their next round of bargaining sometime in 2014 is not a reason to defer consideration of this Application. The Application concerns the failure to pay disability benefits after the applicant turned 60 years old. There is no parallel proceeding in this case that is underway that would cause the Tribunal to defer consideration of the Application.”
Windsor cops proud of their local-only hiring policy
hmm…sound familiar?
Amherstburg police contract negotiations to run into new year
Amherstburg Police Services Board Ignored Question About Legal Fees
The October 21, 2014 Amherstburg Police Services Board Minutes, attached to the December 15, 2014 Council Agenda, do not include my October 4 request to the Board to place my correspondence on its meeting agenda.
I followed up on Sutton’s September 17 letter and requested, “the date(s) of scheduled negotiation meetings and also to request if a decision has been made to hire a consultant and if so, if there was a competitive process and if there was, i’d like an electronic copy of the notice/advertisement for a consultant.
i would also like to know the legal cost to the board/taxpayer with regard to the human rights tribunal of ontario discrimination application by j. saxon.”
I emailed again on October 28, “as you will note from the email below of october 5, i requested my correspondence be placed on the board’s agenda for the next meeting.
i understand the board held a meeting on october 21 and therefore i’m writing to request what the board’s action was regarding my requests.”
No response was received; no surprise and no accountability?
Instead of ratepayers receiving correspondence from staff advising of outcomes, like in the good old days before we became an amalgamated metropolis, citizens are forced to search information via inaccessible web sites and lengthy 300+ page documents with no links to individual reports.
Enough already! Essex County can do it, why can’t Amherstburg?
Commentary by Linda Saxon
Outstanding Town Litigation Excludes Amherstburg Police Service
The Monday, December 15, 2014 Council Agenda (still, unfortunately, found off site) includes a Report to Council regarding the Council Update on Outstanding Town Litigation.
There is fine print indicating what is not included, but the Amherstburg Police Service is not mentioned.
In a December 2011 post, Amherstburg Police Chief Berthiaume Tight-lipped About Deployment, I mentioned how Chief Tim Berthiaume stated, “the amherstburg police service does not ‘breakdown’ legal expenses.”
If the police service legal fees regarding outstanding litigation are excluded from the Report to the Town, should the police service then submit its own Report to the town but this time with a breakdown of fees – for prosecutions, defending claims, complaints, etc.?
The True Cost of Police Body Worn Cameras
Finally, the true technology related cost of the cameras is revealed, as reported in Hamilton News:
“Ferguson’s comments followed a presentation on the cameras made to the board on Monday by police staff that indicated the cost to introduce them could be about $3.8 million in the first year and total approximately $14.8 million over five years. The costing includes hardware, storage infrastructure, software and staffing. Based on a five-year lifespan for the hardware, the initial investment would reoccur at the end of the fifth year.
The presentation also highlighted various legislation and privacy issues that would need to be addressed if officers were to wear the cameras that can record video and audio.”
Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau wants no part of officers wearing body-worn cameras and questioned the cost.
Amherstburg Police is scheduled to conclude its study by the end of 2014 and select a body worn camera for patrol officers or shelve the project if not feasible for APS needs.
Hard to imagine this technology is feasible and affordable in Amherstburg when large services dismiss it due to high costs, including the cost of transcription to submit evidence in court.
the burg watch 