Millions of dollars in additional funding will be flowing into the coffers of local police services as part of the Ontario government’s attempt to improve bail compliance.
The province announced a three-year, $24-million commitment to more than 20 departments and OPP detachments Jan. 11 — including $6.67 million for four local services, as well as the OPP’s Central Region branch.
This money, allocated through the Bail Compliance and Warrant Apprehension grant program, will help police agencies establish dedicated bail compliance and warrant apprehension teams to monitor high-risk individuals.
It will also pay for new technology connected to a provincewide compliance monitoring system.
Under the plan, York Regional Police get $2.4 million, Barrie police receive $1.2 million and South Simcoe police collect $873,311. Rama Police Service and OPP Central Region will split nearly $2.2 million.
“This new funding from the provincial government … will allow the South Simcoe (police) to dedicate targeted officer resources to monitor offenders living in our communities who are released on bail, to ensure they are abiding by their bail conditions, and locate and arrest offenders wanted on warrants who are trying to evade justice,” South Simcoe police Chief John Van Dyke said in a statement. “These new initiatives will further enhance community safety and help residents feel safe.”
In Barrie, the allotment will help implement a crime harm index that will identify high-risk offenders requiring extra attention from the department’s offender management unit. That unit will also use the money to “strengthen partnerships” with community support services, Chief Rich Johnston said.
“This grant funding will allow the Barrie Police Service to continue to utilize data-driven, evidence-based policing principles to drive proactive police work … by combining support systems and wrap-around rehabilitative supports to operate from a co-located space to reduce recidivism (and) reoffending of individuals out on bail,” he said. “This approach will strengthen the ability of the service to monitor, respond and provide support.”
The grant should give departments some of the tools they need to ensure Ontario is one of the safest jurisdictions in Canada, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said in a news release.
“It is unacceptable that repeat and violent offenders are committing serious crimes while out on bail,” he said.
Halton police Deputy Chief Roger Wilkie called the violent crimes committed by repeat offenders a “significant risk to public and officer safety.”
“The alarming level of reoffending, especially violence towards police in the execution of their duties, drives home the need for change,” said Wilkie, the first vice-president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. “The program will enhance monitoring and tracking of those out on bail who pose the highest risk of committing further criminal acts, and make our communities safer. Everyone in the province can get behind that.”
