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East Ferris Police Services Board respond to municipal safety plan

Oct. 4, 2021, East Ferris, Ont. – In August, East Ferris released their community safety and well-being plan. The document provides a snapshot of services within the region, and gauges public opinion regarding those services.

Community surveys are taken, and the municipality discusses issues with various social services to see what is working, and where areas can be improved.

Recently, the East Ferris Police Services Board weighed in on the plan’s findings, as one of the key objectives outlined in that document is “ensuring all East Ferris residents go about their daily activities without risk or fear of harm.”

This includes feeling safe on the roadways, the board notes in their release.

Ensuring “roads are safe for all users” requires several solutions. Education and awareness top the list, but the board is also investigating implementing “speed limiting technologies, road calming measures such as speed limit adjustments, automated enforcement and in-person enforcement.”

These are ideas discussed around the table, “and some may never apply,” the board explains, although “we thought citizens might welcome knowing what forms part of the discussions at Police Services Board meetings.”

The board emphasized their decisions are “based on factual information” that includes reports on calls for service, vehicle incidents and traffic complaints.

Radar data is also compiled, and documents such as the Community Safety and Well-Being plan also influence decisions.

As recorded complaints make such a difference to the board’s data and decision making, “it is always essential for residents to look to formal channels of complaint to express a traffic concern versus doing so on social media.”

If people are tearing down your road, inform the police directly, as odds are they are not reading your Facebook post about the incident.

“The OPP has recently initiated electronic ticketing in East Ferris,” the board explains, “to further help identify where speeding is occurring.”

The municipality is also in the process of reviewing speed limits and has created an active transportation task force to help identify and solve issues for those roadway users not in a vehicle, the joggers, walkers and cyclists.

Moreover, the board is launching an education and awareness campaign in 2022 “aimed at ensuring we the residents of East Ferris always make it home safe, no matter our form of transportation.”