Part 1: Youth Supports, Victim Services, and a New Local Policing Snapshot - 2/19/2026

The County O.P.P. Detachment Board met on Thursday, February 19, 2026, at Shire Hall with a hybrid Zoom option, and the meeting was streamed and recorded for the public.

County staff opened the meeting at 10:01 am, including the land acknowledgement and a reminder that the Board’s work is part of local police governance. The first order of business was choosing who would lead the Board for the term, before moving into community presentations and a detailed detachment report on what local policing looked like in 2025.

© PEC Council (YouTube)

View the entire PEC Council meeting, or continue to speaker comments and councillor votes.

Leadership and agenda setup

For the opening portion, the Board Secretary chaired the meeting to run the election process. Councillor Chris Braney nominated Hon. S. Casey Hill, Board Member, as Chair. The nomination was accepted and carried by vote. Hill then nominated Braney as Vice Chair, and that appointment also carried by vote.

With Hill now in the chair, the group moved through the standard opening items, including disclosure of pecuniary interest (none raised). Braney requested a new agenda item be added for later discussion: the Detachment Commander Local Action Plan. The Board agreed to the addition and approved the amended agenda.

The minutes from the November 20, 2025 meeting were adopted, but Hill raised a concern for the record. Hill noted the Board’s statutory responsibility around budget oversight and pointed to earlier warnings about potential significant OPP cost increases. Hill’s point was simple: the Board needed to avoid being presented with “real numbers” too late in the municipal budgeting process again.

The ROC and a request to support youth

The first major presentation came from Shannon Collins, Executive Director, The ROC, who spoke about The ROC’s role supporting youth, including youth navigating barriers connected to school, mental health, and the justice system.

Collins shared an anonymized story about “Sam,” describing how a no-contact order kept the youth out of school and how The ROC helped keep that youth connected to learning and supportive adults while also helping the family navigate court and legal aid.

Collins explained The ROC’s core supports, including academic help, basic needs, justice system navigation, leadership and social development, and mental well-being. She shared several activity numbers from the past year, including youth accessing tutoring support, youth graduation outcomes, food and hygiene supports, and a major rise in mental health check-ins compared with the year before. Collins also described a newer program supporting youth aged 16 to 24 as they step into adulthood, and the volunteer mentorship program that contributes hundreds of hours annually.

Collins then asked the Detachment Board for $5,000 to support The ROC’s “Keep the Doors Open” campaign, aimed at operational costs like rent and utilities. The Board discussed timing and process, with Hill asking for a short follow-up email explaining the intended use of funds. The Board ultimately passed a motion directing staff to explore the feasibility of providing $5,000 from either the 2026 Detachment Board budget or the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan budget, specifically for the Keep the Doors Open campaign.

Victim Services and what collaboration can look like

Next, Paula Laughlin, Chair, Ontario Network of Victim Services Providers, presented on how victim services agencies across Ontario partner with police to support survivors in real time. Laughlin described victim services as 24/7 crisis response that focuses on the human impact after a crime or traumatic event, including practical support, emotional stabilization, and connection to longer-term resources.

Board members asked the most practical question: what can police boards actually do to help. Laughlin pointed to the need for consistent, sustainable funding and raised the challenge of uneven service levels in rural and remote communities. Laughlin also discussed limits of volunteer-based response models given the severity of many calls, and described interest in more staff-based models, including options like embedding support workers to increase access in rural areas.

Laughlin also shared a current provincial funding request: $18.5 million to support a consistent victim-services-led bail notification program, aimed at ensuring survivors receive timely notification and safety planning when release decisions occur.

A planned presentation from Superintendent Jeffrey Sandy did not happen due to administrative issues, with the expectation he may attend a future meeting.

Updates and a local snapshot from the Detachment Commander

During verbal updates, Hill highlighted a paper on non-fatal strangulation as a risk factor in intimate partner violence, including why it can be missed when visible injury is not present. Jeff McKinnon, Detachment Commander, responded that dispatch and investigative processes already include strangulation screening questions and that it is part of internal procedures, while recognizing disclosure does not always happen.

Hill also flagged a Supreme Court of Canada case to watch related to mandatory alcohol screening, noting it could have broader implications depending on the ruling.

The Community Safety and Well-Being Plan update included highlights from a youth mental health resource fair at PECI that reached hundreds of students and gathered survey feedback. Themes raised by youth included difficulty talking with adults, along with bullying, harassment, and substance use. The update also previewed ongoing work to revise the plan with partners including Loyalist College and Vital Signs, with the goal of bringing a revised plan forward for endorsement in early 2027.

The Board reviewed the 2026 operational budget statement through January and requested that a finance representative attend a future meeting to walk through the report in person. Hill also formally congratulated McKinnon on being appointed as permanent detachment commander.

McKinnon then delivered the detachment report, including changes in traffic collisions and enforcement, trends in crime, mental health calls, and victim services acceptance. He noted collisions were down overall, but injury collisions rose, and that targeted patrols contributed to increases in seatbelt and distracted driving charges. He also reported that intimate partner violence occurrences rose significantly in 2025 compared to 2024, and said it remained a priority area.

Board members asked about staffing levels and public-facing updates like press releases, which McKinnon said appeared to be a communications glitch that would be looked into. There were also questions about a province-wide corruption review and public confusion about a federal firearms program. McKinnon said he would confirm the firearms-related details and follow up rather than speculate on the record.

Key Takeaways

1. The Board asked staff to explore a potential $5,000 contribution to The ROC’s Keep the Doors Open campaign, which was framed as supporting prevention and stability for local youth.

   
   

2. The meeting reinforced that victim services and police are linked in practice, but consistent access in rural communities depends heavily on funding, staffing models, and coordinated planning.

   
   

3. The detachment’s 2025 snapshot pointed to a mixed safety picture: fewer collisions overall but more injury collisions, increased proactive traffic enforcement, and a notable rise in intimate partner violence incidents that the detachment commander said remains high priority.

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Disclaimer: This article is based on a meeting with an approximate duration of 1:33:28. Due to the length of the meeting, our team was not able to independently review the full recording in its entirety. As a result, we relied on software-generated transcription, automated summarization, and automated recognition of speakers and participants, which may not be entirely accurate. All transcriptions, summaries, and related content are prepared by our team in good faith and on a reasonable best-efforts basis. The content is provided for general informational purposes only and is intended to support public understanding of the topics discussed. While reasonable efforts have been made to present the information accurately, automated processes may result in errors, omissions, or unintended misinterpretations. This article does not constitute an official, certified, or verbatim record of the meeting, and it should not be relied upon as such. Readers are encouraged to consult original source materials, official minutes, or recordings where available for confirmation or clarification. Questions, requests for clarification, or suggested corrections may be submitted to hello@pecconnect.ca for review and consideration.