Consulting firm’s report addresses staffing concerns at WRPS

After a staffing and workload review at the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS), a report from the consulting firm KPMG says adding civilian staff and the redeployment of officers could help policing in rural communities.

According to a copy of the report sent to CTV News by WRPS, the review from KPMG was completed between August and December of 2022.

“Front-line policing resources have not kept pace with the growth in population served and a corresponding increase in the total service time within the region,” the executive summary of the report reads.

The report said there’s been a strong desire from community stakeholders for more proactive policing and that many police officers are not able to manage call volumes during their expected working hours.

The review also found that WRPS has fewer sworn officers compared to other regional police services.

To make the most “effective use of its investment in front-line officers," the review suggested diverting calls away from front-line response, supplementing sworn officers with lower-cost civilian staff and more proactively managing the efforts of front-line officers.

Several specific measures were suggested on how to improve the effectiveness of policing in the future, including diverting more low-priority calls away from the front-line to the field support unit, increasing the use of civilians to support activities like report taking and considering the future use of special constables for lower-risk activities like traffic management and securing crime scenes.

There is also a suggestion to increase rural responsiveness by establishing a dedicated rural sergeant, relocating two officers per shift from the northern division to the central division to serve the two rural zones closest to the central division and working with townships to review access to facilities for police use.

“WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR”

The review by KPMG was sent out to all regional councillors, according to WRPS.

Sue Foxton, the mayor of the Township of North Dumfries, told CTV that she is pleased with KPMG’s report.

“[It’s] exactly what we’re looking for,” Foxton said.

Foxton said policing in rural communities has been a hot-button topic for years. 

“Do you know what it is like when you feel like your voice isn’t heard?” she said. “That’s what the townships felt for a while there, that they didn’t matter. That their voice wasn’t heard. I think we’re being heard now. For KPMG to specifically say the townships means we were heard.”

The review also suggested improving the operational deployment of officers by realigning division boundaries to approximate municipal boundaries, reallocating staff across divisions and deploying constables to zones based on current service times.

A suggestion to “improve data quality and performance measurement to support a greater focus on more proactive and accountable policing,” was also included in the report.

The review identified significant increases in the workload of front-line officers over the past four years, “which could represent a risk to the service’s ability to provide consistent, and timely responses and to provide for the safety and security of the community as per the Principles of the Ontario Police Services Act.”

The report also found that WRPS receives a high number of calls for mental health crises.

“While WRPS is fully supportive of increasing the social networks to support people in crisis, this is a slow process, and in the meantime, the community must feel safe,” the report reads.

ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES HIGHLIGHTED

There were other challenges highlighted in the report including ever-evolving technology available to criminals, which KPMG said leads to more training needed, which can mean “gaps in service”. The report also said there’s a gap in 24/7 access to victims services and other social supports.

WRPS was not available for an interview on the KPMG report, but they did say in an email that: “WRPS is currently reviewing the recommendations made by KPMG, and no final operational decisions have been made.”

Police also pointed to the Municipal Benchmarking Network (MBN) Canada Performance Measurement Report.

“At $338 total cost per capita for police services in 2021, WRPS has the third lowest police service costs when compared to the other MBN Canadian participants,” said Cherri Greeno with WRPS.

Final approval of the police budget is expected to happen at the Feb. 22 meeting after much debate.

Last week, Region of Waterloo council voted down a motion to send the proposed $214 million Waterloo Region Police Services Board (WRPSB) back to review where cuts could be made.