Overview
Police Service Boards oversee how policing is provided in their local community. They contribute to their community’s safety and well-being by working with local citizens and organizations to make sure their community receives the appropriate policing it needs.
Policing is overseen by a Board where a community chooses to either:
- establish a municipal police service
- establish a joint police service with other municipalities
- establish a First Nation police service
- receive policing services from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)
- receive policing services from a First Nation police service that has opted into the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019.
Board responsibilities
Responsibilities for Police Service Boards include:
- determining objectives and priorities for police services
- establishing policies for the administration and effective management of the police service
- appointing members of the police service
- preparing a strategic plan at least once every four years
- recruiting and appointing the chief of police and deputy chief
- monitoring the performance of the chief of police
- participating in collective bargaining and working agreement processes as the employer
Note: The Board cannot direct the Chief with respect to specific operational decisions or day-to-day operations of the Police Service. The Chief of Police is responsible for administering the Police Service and overseeing its operation in accordance with the objectives, priorities and policies established by the Board.
CSPA
The Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 ("CSPA") sets out the Board's duties in more detail as follows:
37 (1) A police service board shall,
(a) ensure that adequate and effective policing is provided in the area for which it has policing responsibility as required by section 10;
(b) employ members of the police service;
(c) appoint members of the police service as police officers;
(d) recruit and appoint the chief of police and any deputy chief of police and determine their remuneration and working conditions, taking their submissions into account;
(e) prepare and adopt a diversity plan to ensure that the members of the police service reflect the diversity of the area for which the board has policing responsibility;
(f) monitor the chief of police’s performance;
(g) conduct a review of the chief of police’s performance at least annually in accordance with the regulations made by the Minister, if any;
(h) monitor the chief of police’s decisions regarding the restrictions on secondary activities set out in section 89 and review the reports from the chief of police on those decisions;
(i) monitor the chief of police’s handling of discipline within the police service;
(j) ensure that any police facilities, including police lock-ups, used by the board comply with the prescribed standards, if any; and
(k) perform such other duties as are assigned to it by or under this or any other Act, including any prescribed duties. 2019, c. 1, Sched. 1, s. 37 (1); 2023, c. 12, Sched. 1, s. 16.