ENHANCED MENTAL HEALTH TRAINING FOR POLICE RECRUITS

MENTAL HEALTH TRAINING FOR POLICE RECRUITS TO BE ENHANCED: 4 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE POLICE SERVICE BOARD

From enhanced training for recruits and February crime statistics to 2022 actuals and "next generation" 911 funding, here's what you need to know about the March meeting of the Kawartha Lakes Police Service Board: Mental health, rapid deployment training enhanced province wide.

Kawartha Lakes Police Chief Mark Mitchell shared correspondence from Solicitor General Michael Kerzner regarding the enhancement of immediate rapid deployment and mental health crisis response training within the basic constable training program province wide.

The training comes at no additional cost but will entail six more days of training for recruits.

"We have a very strong rapid deployment in-house training program but it would be nice to have recruits coming back from college with a basic level of training and of course any additional training we can get in mental health and crisis response is most welcome," Mitchell told the board.

Service slightly over budget for 2022"For the first time in a number of years, we're going to be in a small deficit position of around $51,000," Mitchell told the board of the service's budget standing at the end of the year.

Key factors that brought 2022 actuals beyond the $8,935,191 budgeted were new collective agreement costs, increased overtime, an unprecedented six new hires and climbing fuel and vehicle maintenance costs. Court security costs went over budget as in-person services came back into play following cost savings during the pandemic thanks to virtual court processes.

There were three primary areas of budget savings also highlighted: the police service board, communications and training, which Mitchell explained wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"We're seeing a much better uptake in training opportunities for us this year. We've had DRE — drug recognition expert — training as one area we've been lamenting about for years because there's one international component where they have to go to the States to complete that training and we weren't able to do that through the pandemic. We've had two members trained already this year, so that's been a really positive story, we're really catching up there."

The $51,000 budget shortfall will be taken from the service's contingency reserve accounts, leaving the reserves with about $280,000 remaining.thefts Up, incidents downalthough the overall incident numbers for February are lower than those recorded during the same month during the previous two years, Mitchell noted that thefts and property-type crimes remain higher than is usual for this time of year. There were 59 theft under $5,000 charges laid by the service during the month of February, compared to 40 and 45 during the same month in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

"I know every day I'm seeing charges being cleared and so there's been a lot of good co-operation between the business community and our staff," added Mitchell.

Next Generation funding boost

"We're getting $620,000 to support our NG 911 project, which is great news," Mitchell told the board, adding his only concern was the tight deadline of 30 days to spend the money.

"I'm hopeful that there will be an extension."

911

The funding is retroactive to the beginning of the fiscal year so taking into account eligible expenditures already incurred, alongside the biggest remaining expense, a backup 911 site, the issue will not be finding areas where the money is needed but instead getting the necessary vendors in place to do the work.

"We'll do everything we can to get those expenditures in place with our vendors. There's a huge delay, more on the service side than the hardware side with some of the vendors. Everyone's competing for the same scant resources right now," Mitchell explained.