Minister, mayors meeting to discuss regionalized policing on Vancouver Island

The public safety minister said she’s in talks with B.C. mayors who want to explore the unification of their fragmented police departments.

In a recent interview with CTV News, Nina Kreiger said she’ll soon meet with the mayors of Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Saanich, and Victoria.

“The meeting is in response to a letter that we received from South Island mayors wishing to advance discussions around regionalized policing,” Krieger said.

“With any police transition, matters related to governance to who pays for what and how much are going to be the key questions.”

Esquimalt mayor Barb Desjardins said her municipality has supported regionalized policing since 2002, when the Victoria and Esquimalt police departments amalgamated.

The policing price tag is inflated for Esquimalt, as its taxpayers are subsidizing the City of Victoria’s costs, she said.

“Esquimalt has been unhappy with its situation almost from the get-go of the amalgamation,” Desjardins said. “(At the time of) the original amalgamation, it was emphasized that we were the beginning of regionalization.”

Since then, progress has dragged, if not halted completely on several occasions. Desjardins said now is the time to press forward.

“The province really needs to step up and help us with it,” she told CTV News. “There are a number of things that are converging that are affecting this opportunity.”

In addition to cost, she highlighted the collective burden of officer recruitment and retention.

“If we’re all struggling individually, then can we benefit together?” Desjardins asked.

The new chief of the Victoria Police Department seems to think so.

“As a newcomer to the Island, it’s clear to me that the patchwork of policing that exists here now could certainly be improved through regionalization,” Chief Fiona Wilson said.

‘Devil is in the details’

When it comes to transitioning to a new policing model, Wilson said “the devil is in the details.”

Those in favour of regionalization tend to underscore its potential for cost efficiencies and more effective, cohesive policing. A Carleton University researcher who has studied the model said it’s not a silver bullet.

“Assuming that there are going to be operational gains in terms of … response time, clearance rates, (and) crime rates, it’s not the case,” said George Rigakos, a professor in the political economy of policing.

Rigakos said potential positives can be undermined by administrative bloat and by moving patrol officers to specialized units, which are more common in larger departments. As a result, he said there can be fewer front-line officers responding to the “mundane” calls that keep departments busy.

“If you’re looking for some sort of magic change by changing uniforms and making police forces larger, the bulk of what the police do doesn’t change,” Rigakos said.

“Most calls for service are really: mischief, public drunkenness, disorderly calls. That makes up the lion’s share of police responses, and that can be handled by patrol officers wearing all sorts of different uniforms.”