The Durham Regional Police Service Board is the civilian governing body of the Police Service. Its responsibilities include establishing objectives for policing in consultation with the Chief of Police, setting policies for the effective management of the Police Service, and hiring and monitoring the performance of the Chief of Police. The Board consists of seven members, three appointed by the Province of Ontario and four chosen by Regional Council.
As civilian members who represent the public’s interests, the Police Service Board is committed to a high quality of community-based policing that is accountable, professional, and sustainable. The Board recognizes the challenges to law enforcement created by a changing environment, demographic shifts, emerging technologies and evolving crime trends and patterns. With the support of the citizens in Durham Region, the Police Service Board is confident of meeting future policing challenges in the years ahead.
The DRPSB is a member of both the Ontario Association of Police Service Board www.oapsb.ca and the Canadian Association of Police Governance www.capg.ca
BOARD’S RESPONSIBILITIES
The responsibilities of the Police Service Board are outlined in section 37 (1) of the Community Safety and Policing Act, 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.
The Board is also responsible for preparing the Strategic Plan, developing policies for the administration of the Service and the provision of adequate and effective policing, and for submitting the annual operating and capital estimates to the municipality.