Belleville Police Services Board not publishing meeting recordings

The Belleville Police Services Board is a police service board that governs the Belleville Police Service. Under the Police Services Act, the Board is responsible for providing adequate and effective police services to the citizens of the City of Belleville.

The Board provides direction and guidance to the Belleville Police Service while ensuring that adequate and effective police services are provided in accordance with the needs of the municipality.

Contents

Members

The Belleville Police Services Board has 5 members:

2 Council appointees, including head of council
1 member of the community appointed by Council
2 Provincial appointees by the Lieutenant Governor in Council
- Heather Smith – Retired in 2018 as a fundraiser professional to advance the development of University Hospitals in Kingston, Belleville general Hospital, YMCA of Central East Ontario and Ontario Lung Association. She retired as the Executive Director of Belleville General Hospital Foundation. Heather volunteered with many community organizations, including the Quinte Arts Council, Inn from the Cold, Loyalist College Fund Development Advisory Committee and Public Relations Advisory Committee, and RKY Camp in Parham, Ontario.
- Janet Harnden – President, Bay of Quinte PC Association and owner of Pinnacle Music Studios

Meetings

Unless otherwise noted, meetings are held the 3^rd Thursday of the Month in the City Hall Council Chamber at 10:00 a.m.

The Board must meet a minimum of 4 times per year. Meetings must be open to the public and notice must be provided in the manner that the board determines. Meetings may be closed if the board’s opinion is that all or part will involve the disclosure of matters of public security or intimate financial or personal matters, and avoiding their disclosure outweighs disclosure in the public interest.

Board meeting recordings not published on their website

Belleville only publishes the meeting agenda, which also contains the minutes:

Kingston publishes the agenda, minutes, reports and video recording:

Strategic plan

Strategic Plan 2022-2024

Annual reports

2023
2022
2021
2020
2019

Community Safety Plan
Diversity Plan

Budget

2024-Belleville-Police-Services-Board-Budget Download

Budget compared to other municipalities, provincial averages

[Coming soon]

Budget as a % of the municipal budget, compared to the rest of the province?
Crime Severity Index (CSI), which measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime vs comparator municipalities
Police-reported crime rate, which measures the volume of crime relative to the population size vs comparator municipalities

Forensic Identification Officers – City of Belleville has 3 Forensic Identification Officers. Surrounding OPP area has 3 Forensic Identification Officers that travel in a large geographic area. Efficiencies? Dispatchers? Officers?

Neighbouring municipalities policed by OPP

Methods of providing municipal police services
The council may enter into an agreement under section 10, alone or jointly with one or more other councils, to have police services provided by the Ontario Provincial Police.
Section 5 (1) 5. of the Police Services Act

In 2020, the OPP provided municipal policing services to 327, or 74%, of Ontario’s municipalities, and is responsible for patrolling over 1 million square kilometres across the province, from remote northern and First Nation communities to rural and urban centres.
The OPP’s operating expenditures totalled more than $1.2 billion in the 2020/21 fiscal year, an increase of 26% since our last audit in
2011/12. Salaries and benefits costs represented 88% of these expenditures.
The OPP’s efforts to monitor and measure the quality and effectiveness of the police services it provides is limited. In addition, the OPP does not use performance indicators with targets to measure its effectiveness.
Value-for-Money Audit: Ontario Provincial Police – Auditor General of Ontario (2021)

Quinte West

Quinte West has a similar population to Belleville’s but has a much smaller urban population and a much smaller commercial-industrial sector. It is under contract with the OPP to provide policing and that will cost just under $9.5 million in 2024.
John Spitters, Quinte News

Napanee

The Town of Napanee and four neighbouring municipalities were amalgamated by a restructuring order of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing dated January 7, 1997. The order took effect on January 1, 1998. At the time of the order, Towns were responsible for policing, but Townships received OPP policing for free.

Napanee had at one time maintained it’s own force, but at the time of amalgamation contracted with and paid the OPP to provide police services. The order allowed Area Rating of Police Services in the Old Town of Napanee.

Do the neighbouring municipalities with OPP detachments have control/say over their OPP budget contribution/spend and service levels or does the OPP dictate how much they need to contribute? Is it based on population, size, etc?

What is the history of the Belleville Police Services?

The Belleville Police Service (BPS) is one of the oldest police services in Canada, pre-dating the Kingston Police (founded in 1841), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (founded in 1873) and the Ontario Provincial Police (established in 1909).

In 1836, the village of Belleville swore in its first 2 constables, Henry Avrill and Hiram Fulford. The village had a population of approximately 1,000 and encompassed an area of 613 acres at the mouth of the Moira River.
In 1878, it became a city and had 6 members for a population of over 9,500 living in an area of 1,760 acres.