What priorities do you think Orillia OPP officers need to tackle in the community?
City council is looking for resident feedback as they develop the top three priorities the Orillia OPP detachment should focus on in the city, following a request from the new Couchiching OPP Detachment Board, which oversees policing in the area.
The new board, which replaced the former Orillia Police Services Board, is made up of representatives from Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Ramara, and Severn, each of which have been asked to weigh in on policing priorities in their communities ahead of the board’s 2025 local action plan.
“The hope is to … make the community safer,” board chair Ralph Cipolla, who is also a long-time city councillor, told OrilliaMatters. "We've always had information, but not really from the public about what their top priorities are.
“They're different for Orillia; they're different for the other three municipalities because they're more rural than we are, so that's why we want the information,” Cipolla said.
At Monday’s council meeting, Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford suggested putting the question to the public before making any policing priority decisions at the council table, and council ultimately agreed to hold off on making a decision until its Jan. 13 meeting so feedback can be gathered.
“I don't feel that it should be done off the cuff at the council table,” Durnford said. “I think that we need … to give our constituents an opportunity to communicate with us, to send us emails, give us some phone calls about what they think the strategic priorities should be.”
As a result, council is asking the public to weigh in by reaching out to city council members about their policing priorities and concerns in the community. Contact information for city council members can be found on the 'communicating with council' page on the city website.
