This month seems like a fairly light agenda for the Guelph Police Services Board. Everything will be on consent agenda, and most of it deals with annual, provincially mandated reports on just about everything from salaries to public complaints to the number of major cases in the last year. Perhaps the chief will have something new and different to say when its his turn to present his monthly report, but for now, here’s the preview…
NOTE #1: This meeting takes place virtually at 2:30 pm but it will be broadcast on Guelph Police’s YouTube page.
CLOSED MEETING:
It’s unknown – to the general public anyway – what exactly is on the closed meeting agenda, but the open agenda does list six out out of a possible 12 justifications to meeting in-camera under the Community Safety and Policing Act including Personal matters about an identifiable individual; Labour relations or employee negotiations; and Litigation or potential litigation affecting the Board.
Member Appointments Decision – In this month’s new member appointments there’s a new full-time civilian position, a new part-time civilian position and two new officers who will soon begin their cadet training.
Budget Signing Authority – This is pretty straightforward, but there have been some changes in who has signing authority to reflect a new hire and a presently vacant position.
Board Correspondence Report – There’s no incoming or outgoing mail this month.
2025 Access to Information Report – The number of Freedom of Information requests increased by 31 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024; there were 623 versus 476 the year before. Police note that the average response time was 24 days, but 14 per cent of requests took longer than the mandated 30-day timeline, so it is taking them a bit longer to respond. Why? The increase of new technologies like body worn cameras, which take longer to review and redact when necessary. Also, there’s some provincial downloading from the Ministry of the Attorney General in regards to criminal matters and traffic fatalities.
Major Case Management: 2025 Annual Reporting – Every year, the chief of police has to prepare for the Ministry of the Solicitor General an annual report setting out the number of major cases investigated in the previous year. What’s a major case? It’s an abduction, homicide, missing persons, sexual assault or attempted sexual assault, or found human remains.
Missing Persons Act: 2025 Annual Reporting – There’s also a separate annual report for missing persons, and in 2025 there were seven urgent demands were made for five missing persons, investigations including three demands for cell phone records/emergency phone
pings/IP addresses, three demands for financial records and one demand for personal health information.
Public Sector Salary Disclosure for 2025 – Otherwise known as “The Sunshine List”, but this (obviously) only pertains to Guelph Police. In 2025, there were 265 members who meet the reporting threshold, which is a 23.26 per cent increase over the year before. The report also notes that adjusted for inflation, $100,000 in 1996 dollars is just over $185,000 in 2025, in which case only 12 members would make the cut.
Professional Standards 2025 Year End Report – In 2025 there were 53 public complaints received through the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA), nine internal investigations, and seven notifications to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU). A few of these matters are still in the process of being resolved. The report notes that this is out of nearly 87,000 calls for service last year.
Chief’s Monthly Update – As usual, Guelph Police Services Chief Gord Cobey will deliver a verbal report about the latest goings on at 15 Wyndham Street South.
Guelph Politico 