Acting on Council’s direction to make community safety the top priority of the 2022-2026 Financial Plan, City staff will seek a green light to commence a sought Community Safety Resource Review during the upcoming Penticton City Council meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, December 7, 2021.
The proposed $75,000 review, to be completed by mid 2022, is intended to identify long-term staffing level requirements across the City’s community safety portfolio, including RCMP, Bylaw Services and Fire. General objectives contained in the review will include:
- identifying the mandate, resources, structure and internal processes that either hinder or facilitate the effective and efficient delivery of safety services;
- providing direction for the reallocation of existing resources, changes in work tasks and workflow and the identification of gaps in capacity that require additional resources; and
- facilitating the identification of resources that would be required to meet the demands placed on these services in the future.
To lead the review, the City will hire an independent project team led by Dr. Curt T. Griffiths, professor and coordinator of the Police Studies program, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University and Dr. Eli Sopow, professor in the Master of Business Administration program, University Canada West. Both Dr. Griffiths and Dr. Sopow have extensive experience conducting studies of police operations, strategies, and resource utilization across the province.
“The process for completing the review will involve a community survey, City department interviews and focus group meetings with community stakeholders to gather the appropriate data for the eventual long-term recommendations,” said the City’s General Manager of Community Services, Anthony Haddad. “We look forward to working with the City’s Safety & Security Advisory Committee on this process and supporting the community into the future with community safety resourcing to create a healthy and safe future”.
A staff report providing a summary of the review, along with a copy of the supporting project proposal, will be included in the December 7, 2021 Council Meeting agenda package, available on the City’s website, Friday, December 3.