Contact information: bps.board@bellevilleps.ca

The Belleville Police Service Board is a five-member civilian board that governs the Belleville Police Service. Under the Community Safety and Policing Act, the Board is responsible for providing adequate and effective police services to the citizens of the City of Belleville.

Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019

Policing Responsibility

10 (1) The police service boards and the Commissioner shall ensure adequate and effective policing is provided in the area for which they have policing responsibility in accordance with the needs of the population in the area and having regard for the diversity of the population in the area. 2019, c. 1, Sched. 1, s. 10(1) 2023; c. 12, Sched. 1, s. 6 (1).

The Belleville Police Service Board has five members: two Provincial appointees, two Council appointees, and one member of the community as appointed by Council. 

The Belleville Police Service Board is comprised of Chair Heather Smith, Vice Chair Councillor Barb Enright Miller, Mayor Neil Ellis, James O’Brien, Janet Harnden, and Board Administrative Assistant Jennifer McTavish.

The Board provides direction and guidance to the Belleville Police Service while ensuring that adequate and effective police services are provided in accordance with the needs of the municipality. 

As civilian community members who represent the public’s interests, the Police Service Board is committed to a high quality of community-based policing and excellence in police governance. The Board recognizes the challenges to law enforcement created by a changing environment, demographic shifts, emerging technologies, and evolving crime trends and patterns. 

Duties of the Board 

The responsibilities of the Police Service Board are outlined in section 37 (1) of Ontario ‘s Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA 2019): 

            (a) ensure that adequate and effective policing is provided in the area for which it has policing responsibility as required by section 10;

            (b)       employ members of the police service;

            (c)        appoint members of the police service as police officers;

            (d)       recruit and appoint the chief of police and any deputy chief of police and determine their remuneration and working conditions, taking their submissions into account;

            (e)       prepare and adopt a diversity plan to ensure that the members of the police service reflect the diversity of the area for which the board has policing responsibility;

            (f)        monitor the chief of police’s performance;

            (g)       conduct a review of the chief of police’s performance at least annually in accordance with the regulations made by the Minister, if any;

            (h)       monitor the chief of police’s decisions regarding the restrictions on secondary activities set out in section 89 and review the reports from the chief of police on those decisions;

            (i)         monitor the chief of police’s handling of discipline within the police service;

            (j)         ensure that any police facilities, including police lock-ups, used by the board comply with the prescribed standards, if any; and

            (k)        perform such other duties as are assigned to it by or under this or any other Act, including any prescribed duties. 2019, c. 1, Sched. 1, s. 37 (1); 2023, c. 12, Sched. 1, s. 16.

With the support of the citizens of the City of Belleville the Police Service Board is confident of meeting future policing challenges in the years ahead.