Orillia is not a black-and-white example

It's critically important to consider both sides of a story (or more, if the story, like most, happens to be polyhedral). So I would suggest you give a quick read to my colleague Sara Ross's story, in our sister paper the Orillia Packet and Times, on that city's public meeting on policing options.

As Brockville enters the number-crunching phase of its OPP costing, the community group Citizens Offering Police Support (COPS) is holding up Orillia as an example of a city, roughly within Brockville's population range, that has been policed by the OPP for nearly two decades and now wants out.

That city's CAO, Roman Martiuk, does point out in our interview that “the savings are substantial” from switching from an integrated OPP policing model to a reconstituted municipal force.

At last night's meeting in Orillia, Martiuk projected that, following historic growth rates, the OPP would cost $469 million over 20 years while a municipal force would cost $328.5 million.

If the change were only half the historic growth rate, the OPP would cost $286.4 million while a municipal force would cost $233.8 million.

But the other side of the story is that, after policing Orillia since 1996, the OPP appears to have some staying power.

My colleague's story quotes Pat Hehn, executive director of North Simcoe Victim Crisis Services, as defending the OPP.

Her organization has been housed within the Orillia OPP detachment for 14 years, and Hehn has been impressed by working closely with the officers.

“I would be concerned that a municipal force simply could not afford to give our officers the extensive training the OPP can,” she said. “I am concerned about the lot of expertise that we would lose ...”

There appeared to be plenty of OPP supporters at the Orillia meeting.

They included retired OPP officers and brass – not surprising, given the presence of the OPP headquarters in that city.

Retired OPP member Mike van der Jagt was among those questioning the optimistic savings projection from starting up a new municipal force.

“I think it’s a pie-in-the-sky number,” he said.

Supporters of the OPP warn that starting a municipal police force would be costlier than expected, and the level of service would be lower.

More expensive in the long run, and less service – exactly what supporters of the city police are saying right now about replacing the Brockville Police Service with the OPP.

Far from a community eager to ditch the OPP badge for a new one, Orillia, at least in my colleague's article, sounds like a city not willing to give up what it has for an uncertain option.

Could this be a mirror-image of the COPS movement in Brockville: two sides of a similar reluctance to change?

It's probably not that simple. But the Orillia meeting demonstrates that, in this tricky, thorny OPP costing debate, few things will ever be black and white.