Sarnia police hiring a second deputy

Sarnia is getting a second deputy police chief.

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For how long and at exactly what cost isn’t yet clear as that’ll be determined through the board’s hiring process.

But with one of three inspectors — each in charge of a department and reporting to the deputy and chief — away on indefinite medical leave, various recently passed provincial legislative changes impacting everything from training for special constables to the definition of adequate and effective policing, local calls for service increases, and a relatively green workforce that makes promoting from within tricky, help is needed, said police chief Derek Davis.

“We’ve run out of other viable alternatives,” he told the service’s board Thursday, explaining 90-hour work weeks “are not uncommon” for inspectors, the current deputy and himself.

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“It’s a matter of sustainability at this point,” he said, adding “the hours that are being invested … it’s becoming untenable.”

Sarnia’s board was unanimous in approving the request.

Chrissy McRoberts, one of two city council representatives on the board, said the case for hiring is strong, but the service isn’t getting a blank check.

“Our crime is going up, we’re getting officer burnout,” she said about the need.

“But I do believe that when the, ‘I really want this’ comes up in the future, we’re going to have to say … ‘that’s not for this year.’”

The board isn’t locked in to having a second deputy indefinitely, board chair Paul Wiersma said.

“It could be permanent if we decide so down the road,” he said.

“But at this point we’re looking at more of a temporary position.”

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The length of the contract and salary will be negotiated, officials said.

How long it’ll take for the board to hire isn’t clear, Davis said, adding finding the right candidate means not rushing.

“But it’s also something we don’t want to delay because the whole point of this is to bring some resources to bear soon,” he said.

The new deputy would be responsible for criminal investigations, he said, while current deputy Julie Craddock looks after things like community support teams, training and recruiting.

The board also approved hiring a third IT technician to help existing resources stretched thin, and a crime analysis manager — a civilian position — to oversee and assist an analyst hired earlier this year.

That analyst has been helping with criminal investigations case preparation, background work and sharing information with other organizations, Davis said.

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The position has made a significant difference, but the division — which went to seven-day coverage earlier this year, up from five — has still been logging significant overtime hours because of the volume and severity of cases, Davis said.

Adding the second analyst position will help, he said.

With a number of officer jobs currently vacant — a combination of newly created positions this year, general attrition, and not enough space available fast enough at the Ontario Police College — salary savings will fund the estimated $275,000 cost of all three positions until the end of the year, police brass said in a report.

But carrying the positions over into 2025 — something the approval ensures will happen, Davis said — means an estimated $550,000 or a 1.5 per cent budget increase.

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And that’s with contract negotiations with the Sarnia Police Association still outstandingvarious training and procedural costs associated with various April-instituted changes under the Community Safety and Policing Act not fully tabulated, and reserves for the force still low, Davis said.

“Thankfully we did position the way we did in the last couple of years,” the chief said about 11.5 and 9.9 per cent budget increases in 2023 and 2024.

This year’s was set at $33.4 millionincluding adding more front-line and support positions.

“It’s actually positioned us to be able to absorb more of the issues that we’re dealing with right now in terms of capacity,” Davis said.

Management ranks in the service are lean and many officers arrived new in criminal investigations in 2024, meaning promoting an inspector from within would mean backfilling staff sergeant and sergeant roles with “very good people” who don’t necessarily have the experience, Davis said.

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Traditionally, people have stayed in roles for a long time at the service, limiting people’s exposure to other areas of policing and decreasing management breadth, he said, noting the service has started shifting people around to get them more experience and opportunities.

About 20 per cent have had the opportunity to work in new positions so far this year, the report says.

“When you go right down to the bottom of this, we’re right in a critical phase of a lot of new people in new positions,” Davis said.

“This is our conundrum.”

Expectations are the two newly approved civilian positions can be filled within weeks, posting internally first, he said.

Meanwhile, criminal charges and arrests are up 16 per hundred year to date, officials said in the report.

Managing workload was an issue even before the service lost one-third of its inspectors to medical leave several weeks ago, Davis said.

People going on leave happens, he said.

“This is just one of those things … but we still have workload that we manage,” including new demands beyond the service’s control, he said.

“This isn’t a whim,” he said about the newly approved positions.

The move isn’t without precedent, he noted, referring to Sarnia’s fire service hiring a second deputy last year.

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