A new era looms for Pembroke city police
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Editor’s note: Today we are pleased to bring you the first in a series of stories detailing how the changeover in city policing from the Pembroke Police Service to the Ontario Provincial Police will take place. Watch for the second story in the series in The Daily Observer on May 4.
Change is never an easy thing to undergo, especially to an institution which has been around for nearly 135 years.
The Pembroke Police Service is currently going through such a transition, as the countdown continues towards its dissolution as an entity, while the Ontario Provincial Police steps up to assume policing duties in the city.
The handover date is set for July 6, an historic occasion which marks the end of one era and the beginning of another.
Helping to oversee this transition is Acting Inspector Jeff Smith, who heads up the Upper Ottawa Valley OPP detachment. The idea is to try and make the switch as smooth and seamless as possible, for both the public and the officers involved. Once the changeover is complete, the city will become a zone within the detachment’s area of responsibility, with those city police officers who would be hired on by the OPP assigned to patrolling it.
“The OPP has been doing such transitions for many years,” he said. “We have a significant team of people behind the scenes assigned to the Pembroke transition, which includes our contracting policing specialists, career development bureau, the East Region business and financial services, the provincial communications center, and the Upper Ottawa Valley detachment as well, to name a few.”
Smith agreed it is a complex process, which started the moment after the Ontario Civilian Police Commission brought down its decision in February to support the dissolution of the Pembroke Police Service, and it is not one as simple as changing uniforms.
First, the 28 officers now serving in the city’s police service wanting to work for the OPP have had to apply for positions in the organization, going through the same hiring process as anyone who would want to join, except as serving officers they wouldn’t need to write the various police qualifying exams.
Smith said these candidates are interviewed, which involves reviewing their files and work records, going through their references and experiences, and if at the end of this the candidates are found to meet OPP standards, they are hired on. This process is about to get underway.
Once they have completed the hiring, Smith said half of these Pembroke officers will be sent to the OPP headquarters in Orillia for three weeks to train to become OPP officers. This includes getting familiar with their procedures, computer and communications systems, sidearms and other equipment, which are different from the ones the city police currently use.Once those officers complete the training, they will be rotated back to Pembroke, when the rest of the officers will head out for their three weeks of training.
During this time, members of the OPP across the region will cover for the missing police officers while they are away.
“Fortunately, the vast majority of Upper Ottawa Valley officers have been assisting in calls of service, or live in and around the city,” Smith said. As part of the transition, OPP officers have already been patrolling with their city counterparts, getting familiar with the community.
“All this gives (OPP officers) the chance to get familiar with the area, and also integrates our members with theirs,” he said. This isn’t the difficult task it could be, considering Pembroke police and the OPP have been working closely and interacting for years, both on and off duty.
Once their training is complete, the Pembroke officers will continue on as city police, wearing their same uniforms as always, but with one difference; the equipment they will be carrying will be OPP issue.
Smith said these officers will still not be part of the OPP until they are sworn in during a special ceremony, tentatively scheduled for July 6, 2013. During that time, each officer, clad in OPP dress uniforms, will repeat an oath all members of the provincial force recite. After this, they will be welcomed into the OPP.
“Members of the Upper Ottawa Valley OPP are looking forward to members of the Pembroke Police Service becoming members of the OPP family,” he said.
The details of the day and the ceremony are being worked out, as it also marks the passage of the Pembroke Police Service, the transformation of the Pembroke Police Services Board, and the retirement of city police chief Dave Hawkins and Drew Melon, his deputy chief.
Smith said the transition committee, comprising of himself, the chairman of the police services board, the city’s CAO, and the police chief and deputy chief, is working on planning that special occasion.
One item which won’t be ready by July is the new satellite police station on Lake Street, where the officers serving Pembroke will be operating, while the host building for the detachment will remain the current OPP facility in Petawawa.
The city, currently in the midst of converting the former Lakeside Medical Centre at 227 Lake Street into a police station, is hoping to have it ready sometime this fall.
Until then, Smith said they will operate out of the Petawawa HQ and use the existing police station on Williams Street as a storefront operation, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.. That will mean business can be conducted there, but most of the building will remain non-operational, including its cells, as it isn’t adequate for the OPP’s needs, both for lacking in accessibility and the presence of asbestos, which has forced much of the structure’s interior to be sealed off.
Anyone in police custody will be held at the Petawawa station.
The satellite facility, when it was ready, would be open to the public Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Service outside those hours would be provided via a telephone located at the front of the building, with a direct line to the police communications centre, located in Smiths Falls. Pembroke residents would not experience any changes with regard to the 9-1-1 system.
Stephen Uhler is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist