Police decision sent to commission
By Chris Fell - Express Staff

A hearing was held last Wednesday morning in the council chambers to allow OCCOPS, the civilian agency that oversees policing related decisions, to hear Meaford's proposal to switch the entire municipality to an OPP contract service.

Several people spoke at the meeting including: OPP Inspector Art Goard, Meaford/Thornbury Police Chief Steve Birchall, Meaford/Thornbury Police Association President Mike Styles, Meaford Police Committee Chair Linda van Aalst, consultant Michael Mitchell and members of the public were given an opportunity to comment.

Representatives from the Municipality of Meaford (van Aalst and Mitchell) explained the process used by council to develop an RFP for policing and how the selection process that resulted in a vote in favour of OPP policing had happened. The OPP representatives outlined their proposal to police the Municipality of Meaford and assured OCCOPS that the officers and civilian staff of the Meaford/Thornbury Police Service were all offered full time employment with the new service provider.

The most controversial presentation was that of Meaford/Thornbury Police Chief Steve Birchall, who said the current proposal before OCCOPS didn't include sufficient staff to maintain policing levels in the former Town of Meaford.

In addition, several members of the public slammed Meaford council for choosing the OPP over the wishes of the residents of Meaford.

Verna Mullin, a resident of Meaford and a business owner, said council had ignored the wishes of the people in choosing the OPP and had also decided to go with the most expensive option for policing.

"Why have you people decided to load taxpayers with even more of a burden? We're already hurting and the businesses downtown can't take much more of this. If you keep doing this to us, we'll have a ghost town," said Mullin, who went on to praise Police Chief Steve Birchall for doing a thankless job on behalf of the people. "Nobody has ever said thanks to Acting Chief Steve Birchall. He has worked his heart out and loves this town. We're lucky to have him. He has done a job few would do with no help, no encouragement and no backing. That's commendable," said Mullin.

While another Meaford resident, Helmut Mayer, said the wishes of the citizens had been completely ignored by town council yet again. Mayer said Meaford went through the same OPP costing process in 1995 and the citizens made it clear then they wanted a local police force. Mayer said he moved to town in 1995 and had never seen a police force as responsive and pro-active as the one he found in Meaford.

"Why are we fixing (the police force) when it isn't broke? Everything in the province is being taken over by the Harris government. Why do police forces have to be consolidated? The people of Meaford have rejected the OPP proposal five times in a row," said Mayer, who urged OCCOPS to ensure policing in Meaford stayed as local as possible.

It is expected OCCOPS will reach a decision in 4-6 weeks. Several decisions are possible.

"We have three choices, we could say yes you can proceed. We could say no or we could say yes, subject to certain conditions being met," OCCOPS Chair Murray Chitra said after the hearing ended.

If the board was to say yes, then Meaford could proceed with the disbandment of the current service and switch to the OPP under the proposal presented. If OCCOPS said no then the status quo would be maintained with no changes and council would be free to begin the process all over again should it choose to do so.

OCCOPS could also approve the disbandment of the current service and approve the switch to the OPP, but it could place conditions on that being allowed, such as the addition of officers to the proposal to increase the level of service.