Police Regionalization Shut Down
In a recent interview with the Times Colonist, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth shut down the idea that the province would mandate regionalization of local police forces, although he did add that he would support any municipality that chose to combine police services for efficiency.
Currently, Greater Victoria has 4 municipal forces and 2 RCMP detachments for the region. Voluntary funding and support for integrated units such as traffic, major crime, domestic violence and tactical response are in place. Unfortunately, the police forces operate using the opt-in, opt-out model that can result in units like the Regional Crime Unit, which targeted prolific offenders, to suddenly collapse.
The Chamber is a strong proponent of better governance through fewer governments and hopes to see more efforts in the region to focus on the
effectiveness and efficiency of municipal service delivery to reduce the burden on businesses and improve Greater Victoria's reputation as a whole.
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