Chatham-Kent's outgoing police chief says regional policing works well in this region, but it's not for all communities.
Dennis Poole says amalgamating police forces into one bigger service depends on the region. "For us in Chatham-Kent, we have 2,400 square kilometers to cover. To be frank, I wouldn't want to have to deal with much more because that's a challenge for us at the best of times," says Poole. "But I think that regional policing model, the county-based policing model is a good model, especially for what I would call the smaller town rural communities that comprise our rural counties."
More and more neighbouring towns and cities are looking at amalgamating police forces as a way to save money.
The most recent examples had Amherstburg in talks with Windsor and LaSalle about a possible police merger, and Chatham-Kent has held talks with the Town of Essex about providing the service.