Cobourg versus OPP another slant
In the ongoing debate about the efficiency of the OPP and the wastefulness of the Cobourg police let's look at the proposed workload and the actual (1996) and see if we will get value for the Cobourg dollar.
Cobourg has 18 frontline officers (23 total) and 5 Sgts. The OPP proposes to have 23 constables and 6 Sgts (one more than now) so be fair and say that the three OPP constables will become program officers and therefore the number of constables will be the same - 18.
Cobourg has 18 frontline officers (23 total) and 5 Sgts. The OPP proposes to have 23 constables and 6 Sgts (one more than now) so be fair and say that the three OPP constables will become program officers and therefore the number of constables will be the same - 18.
Now look at the workload, it is substantially different. Cobourg responds to each complaint And the OPP will only respond to complaints of a dollar value of more than $4800, source of this the OPP Municipal Policing Framework: buried in the back under "differential response".
The upshot is that of the 4771 cases responded to last year by the Cobourg Police, 1001 of them would not be followed up by the OPP under the differential response.
So we now have the same number of officers, and an extra Sgt. doing 20% less work - who is overcharging now?
3 comments:
At present the Cobourg police work a large amount of overtime, some of which may not be necessary, or may be caused by foolish tasks. Perhaps OPP mangagement would be more strict and get the job done on time and at budgeted cost ?
I do not think we should automatically equate results acheived with money or time spent. Working smarter is effective in most occupations. Should it not also be applied in policing?
If you can demonstrate the amount of overtime is due to foolish tasks and not due to the undermanning of the department on a day to day basis because of sick leave, suspensions or any other HR reason I'll buy your argument. On the other hand with dedicated officers, as opposed to a floating crew (which the OPP says will not be the manning bases), who says the same thing will not happen with the OPP?
A second thought on the first comment by anon. Did Northumberland County get reimbursed by the OPP when the complement was depleted by the reassignment of officers to Caledonia during the recent troubles, I'll bet not! Why not they didn't get the allocated hours
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