New Amalgamated Detachment Board to Replace Police Service Boards in Essex, Lakeshore, and Tecumseh

As of April 1, 2024, the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019, comes into effect, meaning that police service boards under the former Police Services Act will be discontinued in favour of new detachment boards, for municipalities policed by the OPP. Locally, the police service boards of the Town of Essex, Town of Tecumseh, and Municipality of Lakeshore will be dissolved as of March 31, 2024, through a by-law and replaced by a single entity, Essex Detachment Board – North, starting April 1.

In October of 2023, the Ministry of the Solicitor General approved the new board for the Essex County OPP Detachment – North to be made up of nine representatives from Lakeshore, Essex, and Tecumseh. Subsequently, in January, 2024 the Province issued a description of the detachment board regulation and advised that the new boards were to be established by April 1.

Each municipality must appoint a Council representative and community representative as well as an agreed upon “at-large” representative. Two representatives will also be appointed by the Province of Ontario.

Board members appointed to date are as follows:

• Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey
• Lakeshore Community Representative Julie Johnston
• Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy
• Essex Community Representative Dave Kigar
• Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara
• Tecumseh Community Representative Paul Sweet

For the balance of this term of municipal office, the at-large representative will be rotated between the three municipalities, starting with Tecumseh. Tecumseh Council appointed former PSB Chair, Chris Hales, who will serve out the balance of 2024 once his appointment is confirmed by Essex and Lakeshore. For 2025, Lakeshore will make the appointment and in 2026, Essex will make the appointment, subject to agreement by all three municipalities.

The new detachment board is expected to get underway with their first meeting in April. For the time being, the new board meetings will be held in Tecumseh and live-streamed for public access. The agenda will be published a week in advance of the meeting and posted to each municipal website.

Background

Police services boards oversee how policing is provided in local communities. Under the new legislation, police service boards are to be representative of the communities they serve. These boards contribute to their community’s safety and well-being by working with local citizens and organizations to make sure their community receives the appropriate policing it needs. To ensure the delivery of adequate and effective policing in their area of responsibility, police service boards work to establish priorities, objectives, and policies for policing in their jurisdiction.