Belleville Police Board keeps just 2 years of meeting records online – other services keep up to 9

Open Council commentary

Municipalities must prioritize accountability and transparency.

Belleville Police Service states its commitment to transparency and accountability in its 2024 Annual Report:

Focused on supporting and assisting victims of crime, managing and deploying resources in a sustainable manner and maintaining public trust and ensuring transparency and accountability

And its 2026-2029 Strategic Plan:

This plan sets clear goals and priorities to meet the needs of our community. It is about enabling and supporting the people on the frontlines, strengthening trust through collaboration and transparency, and providing the tools and resources needed
to meet evolving demands.

When board meetings are removed from public view after 2 years, it undermines that commitment.

This practice is actively detrimental to government transparency:

• Accountability: When meetings records are hidden, residents are blocked from reviewing past minutes, statistics and reports. This makes it more difficult for residents to hold the board accountable for its statements and decisions.
• Research: Hiding meeting records makes it more difficult for citizens, journalists, and researchers to track local issues.

Maintaining a permanent, searchable public archive of past board meetings is a minimal-cost, high-value way to provide transparency. The BPSB should adopt Open Government principles and maintain a public archive in line with its records retention schedule policy as outlined by the Ontario Municipal Act, 2001 at minimum.