KENSINGTON, P.E.I. — Kensington Town Council voted unanimously on Nov. 9, to formally adopt a Police Study/Model Review during its regular November meeting.
Mayor Rowan Caseley said the council requested the review following a survey of residents.
“One of the concerns that council had was, is everybody happy with our police department, are there any concerns?,” Caseley said. “What can we do to make sure we are sustainable into the future, or is there a preference for anything else?”
The results, said Caseley, showed everybody is "basically happy" with the current services. He said the review featured 16 recommendations for the administrative side of the operation. Staff will now work on an implementation plan for those recommendations.
“There was nothing operational (in the report),” said the town’s chief administrative officer, Geoff Baker.
A quick look at the Kensington Police Department:
- The department has three full-time members – chief, corporal and senior constable – and four part-time constables.
- The town also has a part-time records manager who manages the police record systems.
- The 2020-21 police budget has been set at $539,259.
Police Chief Lewie Sutherland said he was “very pleased” with the review. He added it shows the residents of Kensington are pleased with the work of the department.
“We try to do a good job for them every day, and it looks like they are satisfied,” said Sutherland, who added his department works hard to make Kensington a “good place” to live. “There are some recommendations, which are things to tweak, and I would have been surprised if there weren’t any.
“I look forward to putting them in place and have already started putting some of them in place.”
The mayor said council learned a lot of "good stuff" from the police study. Caseley went on to say there was also nothing "earth-shattering" in the report.
“It kind of confirmed that we thought we were what we thought we were, and we want to continue along the same lines and hopefully keep a handle on our costs,” said Caseley, who added there was no recommendation to do anything different. “Status-quo seemed to be quite satisfactory.”
Rejects
Other items on council's agenda that night included a vote on a letter from the Kensington Vipers’ junior B hockey team seeking a one-time-only subsidy of $5,000 in ice rentals for the 2020-21 season. The Vipers were seeking support after being impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Vipers, who have played out of Credit Union Centre for over 20 years, lost out on playoff revenue last spring and are presently allowed only a limited number of spectators.
Council discussed the letter submitted by team owner Pat McIver at a recent committee of council meeting and put off voting until Monday’s meeting. During the discussion, council was sympathetic to the position the Vipers are in, but the consensus was they didn’t feel they could support it.
Council voted unanimously to recognize they received the request from the Vipers, but noted it was not in a position to support the request.
