WPS looking for input on its new strategic plan

Lee Griffi, Editor

“Your Voice. Your Community. Your Police Service.”

That’s the theme as the Woodstock Police Service (WPS) Board is inviting residents to participate in its 2027–2030 Strategic Plan Survey.

“This is your opportunity to share your experiences, identify community priorities, raise public safety concerns, and help shape the future of policing in Woodstock. We encourage all residents to take a few minutes to complete the survey and ensure your voice is part of the conversation,” said a board press release.

Under the Community Policing and Safety Act, a force’s police service board must review and, if appropriate, revise the strategic plan at least once every four years.

“The legislation we work under is oriented towards adequate and effective policing and the strategic plan has to address that,” explained board chair Ken Whiteford. “The current plan is going to expire at the end of the year, so we’re working now to do a new plan,” he added.

Whiteford said the survey will allow the police service to find out what the public thinks about the job they are doing.

“Kind of a report card, if you want to call it that, to see how things have been going over the last few years. We are hoping to get a lot more feedback than we have in the past.”

The plan will be developed with the help of Consilium Public Sector Services, an Ontario-based consulting firm that provides strategic, governance, planning, and organizational review services to public-sector organizations, including municipalities, police services, fire departments, EMS agencies, and government bodies.

Chief Nic Novacich said they will also be consulting community partners as part of the process.

“We’ve identified probably a dozen of our community stakeholders and partners, including city council, the BIA, Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Mental Health, addiction services, Oxford County, to name a few. Consilium will be reaching out to them for in-person interviews.”

He added an internal survey is also being sent out to members of the service to get their thoughts.

“That’s the whole point of this: to get input from the community on what’s important to them. What’s working, what isn’t, to help us shape our service for the coming years. We don’t know everything, and we need the public’s help to guide us. It will basically be a roadmap for us for where we go over the next four years.”

WPS does receive feedback from residents regularly, something Novacich said is also very helpful.

“We get a lot of reaction from our social media posts. Every week we’re getting emails from people about what a great job our officers did on a call, which we relay back to them.”

Novacich said officers will be handing out pamphlets to the public on Canada Day at Southside Park to encourage participation in the survey and at StreetFest. He added the force also wants to hear from people who have criticism of the force.

Deputy Chief Jamie Taylor said that at the end of the day, WPS wants to ensure they have the trust of the public.

“We want to give them an opportunity to speak and tell us what their expectations are, both good and bad. We work in collaboration with the community, and ultimately, that’s what it's about.”

The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Woodstock_Community or by clicking the survey link on the Woodstock Police Service website at https://woodstockpolice.ca/.