At a special committee of the whole meeting, Esquimalt council members approved looking into the possibility of re-establishing the municipality’s police force with a contract with a bigger department to handle more serious incidents.
At a committee meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27, councillors voted unanimously in favour of exploring the renewal of the Esquimalt Police Department (EPD) and cancelling an agreement in which the Victoria Police Department takes jurisdiction of Esquimalt.
In 2003, the EPD was dissolved and policing services were provided by VicPD, in 2014, the township, the City of Victoria, and the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board entered a 10-year agreement to provide clarification between the parties. Last year, the township elected to not renew the agreement and to develop a new policing arrangement.
According to a policing model report from Perivale and Taylor Consulting, Esquimalt is currently paying almost 14 per cent of the Victoria Police Department budget, but the township believes their share should be about 10 per cent.
“The EPD, has a lot of uncertainty, it has a lot of unknowns, but it also has a lot of potential. It’s going to cost some money, and it’s going to take some resources, but this is the furthest we’ve been able to go with the province in 22 years,” said Coun. Jacob Helliwell at the meeting. ” I think it’s really important that we leverage the work that we’ve done and that we take it, not necessarily to completion because that’s not defined, but we at least take it through investigations at the next step.”
The report noted a two-year period would be required to establish the EPD process, and it would take approximately five years to finalize the process. Once implemented, an EPD with 25 officers would cost an estimated $6.57 million, which is equivalent to almost 10 per cent of the VicPD budget.
The township is also exploring the idea of contracting a bigger police department for “specialized” services, like forensics, major crimes and serious investigations, similar to an agreement between Oak Bay and the Saanich Police Department.
Mayor Barbara Desjardins expressed her thanks to VicPD for the “terrific job in a very difficult situation,” and despite the potential upcoming challenges with re-establishing the department, it would be easier, and cheaper for all parties involved.
Council will vote to approve the motion at a later council meeting.
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