Brighton Mayor Brian Ostrander recently won approval from the county council to update a 2007 study on a county-wide police force. Any changes would impact Port Hope, Cobourg (above), and Port Hope.
The show/full interview:
When municipal budgets get tight, politicians look for savings. One of their favourite targets is policing. This is due to the enormous costs associated with providing this service. Most of the items in a police budget are fixed and are hard to cut.
For decades, efforts to cut costs by amalgamating local police were undertaken. All of them failed. The reasons are varied, but the results were the same. Nobody wanted to give up control. Even Northumberland County council did a significant study in 2007 to see if a regional police force could be created. But it got shelved.
Last month, as the county budget was being passed, Brighton Mayor Brian Ostrander made a last-minute motion to update the 2007 study to see if a regional police force was feasible. In this interview, he will explain what he is trying to do.
Originally aired: February 10, 2023
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