Project Right Response: A Five-Year Strategic Plan for a Health-Led Community Safety Model in Sarnia

Project Right Response is a transformative five-year plan to realign our community’s resources with its actual needs by reallocating $10 million from the Sarnia Police Service’s operating budget to Lambton County’s Emergency Medical Services. This strategic investment will fund a specialized, health-focused Community Paramedic Response Unit to provide a more compassionate response for vulnerable residents while freeing up police to focus on their core mandate of investigating serious crime.

Journal Staff

Published: September 22nd, 2025

Executive Summary

[View Project Right Response on Google Docs]

The City of Sarnia is at a critical juncture. Faced with a rising Violent Crime Severity Index and an ever-expanding police budget (projected to exceed $40 million by 2027), the current model of community safety is proving both fiscally unsustainable and operationally ineffective. Data from the Sarnia Police Service (SPS) and national research confirm that police are overburdened, spending the majority of their time responding to complex social and health-related crises – mental health, addiction, homelessness – for which they are not the primary experts. A 2025 policy report by University of Toronto researchers found that 70–80% of all calls for police service in Canada are non-criminal in nature. Scholars have described this trend as “policification,” meaning the police role has gradually expanded into areas they are ill-equipped to handle. Sarnia is no exception. SPS annual reports show that a significant volume of “Calls for Service” in our city are for non-criminal matters such as Mental Health Act incidents, welfare checks, and “unwanted person” complaints (often related to homelessness). In 2024 alone, officers recorded roughly three times more homelessness-related encounters than the year prior – an untenable load for a law enforcement agency. Meanwhile, despite pouring resources into enforcement, core public safety outcomes are not improving: the SPS budget has grown by about $9 million in just three years, yet Sarnia’s Violent Crime Severity Index jumped 24% in 2023.

Project Right Response offers a transformative but practical remedy: realign our community’s resources with its actual needs. Over five years, the plan will reallocate $10 million from the Sarnia Police Service’s operating budget to Lambton County’s Emergency Medical Services, funding a specialized, health-focused Community Paramedic Response Unit (CPRU). This unit – operated by Lambton EMS – will become the primary first responder for all non-violent mental health crises, addiction-related incidents, and wellness checks. The concept is straightforward: send the right responders to the right calls. By doing so, Project Right Response will achieve three critical outcomes:

Provide a more compassionate and effective emergency response for our community’s most vulnerable residents, by having healthcare-trained specialists (paramedics and crisis workers) handle mental health and substance-use crises instead of armed officers.

Free up Sarnia Police officers to focus on their core mandate of investigating and deterring serious crime, rather than performing makeshift social work. This will improve police response times and investigative capacity for violent and property crimes.

Create long-term fiscal sustainability by reducing expensive, repetitive crisis-call cycles and avoiding unnecessary capital projects. By addressing the root causes of many 911 calls, we can fundamentally re-evaluate the need for a massive new police headquarters – especially given evidence that the current station can be adequately upgraded for about $4.4 million (a fraction of the proposed new build cost).

This plan is evidence-based and modeled on successful innovations elsewhere. For example, Eugene, Oregon’s CAHOOTS program (in operation since 1989) deploys a medic and crisis worker to appropriate 911 calls and now handles 17% of the police department’s call volume, saving the city an estimated $8.5 million annually in public safety costs. More recently, Toronto launched a pilot Community Crisis Service in 2022 that has diverted 78% of mental-health-related 911 calls to non-police teams, with no police involvement needed in those cases. Project Right Response takes inspiration from these models while tailoring the approach to Sarnia-Lambton’s context. It also directly aligns with the strategic goals of Lambton EMS, which has explicitly stated its vision to be “innovative leaders in delivering evidence-based paramedicine to our community.” Lambton County has already begun moving in this direction with a 2024 provincially funded pilot that pairs community paramedics with mental health crisis workers. Project Right Response is a collaborative, made-in-Sarnia solution that builds on that momentum. It is a plan to put the right resources on the front lines of community safety, ensuring better outcomes for residents and better value for taxpayers.

1.0 The Mandate for Change

The current model of community safety in Sarnia is failing to meet our needs. A strategy that relies almost exclusively on police to solve what are fundamentally health and social problems is not working – a fact supported by both local metrics and national research.

1.1 The Overburdened Police Service

The SPS – like many police services across Canada – is overwhelmed with non-criminal demands. Studies show that “70–80% of all calls for police service” are actually for non-criminal incidents. Police officers are being tasked with roles for which they are not properly trained, a trend one policy expert calls “austerity-driven policification,” where police fill gaps left by underfunded social services. Front-line officers in Sarnia routinely respond to mental health crises, addiction overdoses, suicide attempts, and homelessness-related issues. These calls are complex and time-consuming, often requiring de-escalation or social work skills more than law enforcement. Yet we currently default to sending police by default, effectively making them frontline social workers in addition to their regular duties. This is neither fair to the officers nor effective for the people in crisis. It also carries risks: police receive as little as 1 to 20 hours of mental-health training, far below the 40 hours standard for dedicated crisis intervention teams. In short, we have asked the police to do a job they were never intended or equipped to do, and it is stretching the system to a breaking point.

1.2 The Local Reality in Sarnia

Our community’s own data mirrors this national picture. A significant proportion of Sarnia’s police calls involve social issues, not crimes. For example, Mental Health Act apprehensions, “person in distress” welfare checks, opioid overdoses, and “unwanted person” calls (often involving unhoused individuals) make up a large share of SPS call volumes. According to the SPS annual reports, these types of non-criminal calls have surged in recent years. In 2024, the police service’s specialized homelessness engagement unit (the IMPACT team) logged over 1,500 encounters with homeless individuals, up from about 500 the year before – a threefold increase. Chief Derek Davis himself has stated that “mental health calls are the biggest challenge we face” as a community. Every hour an officer spends trying to coax a suicidal person off a bridge or searching for a missing teen in crisis is an hour not spent on proactive policing or solving crimes. Yet those crisis calls must be answered – and right now, we answer them with police by default. The result is an overstretched SPS: response times get slower, follow-ups lag, and officers burn out while those in crisis often don’t get the expert care they truly need.

1.3 The Fiscal Imperative

Sarnia’s policing costs have skyrocketed without delivering commensurate safety benefits. The SPS operating budget has increased by over $9 million in the past three years. For 2025, the police budget sits around $36 million, and it is slated to reach $40.8 million by 2027 – consuming an ever-greater share of the City’s tax base. Despite this heavy spending, key crime indicators have worsened: Sarnia’s Violent Crime Severity Index hit an all-time high in 2023, jumping 24.5% in a single year. In other words, we are paying more and more for a model that is, by the measures of crime severity, giving us worse outcomes. This calls for a hard re-examination of where our next dollar is best spent. Continuing to increase the police budget in hopes of addressing issues like addiction or mental health is throwing good money after bad – those issues are not solved with handcuffs and patrol cars. Our return on investment for the enforcement-centric status quo is poor. We need to invest in a different approach if we expect different results.

1.4 The Flawed Justification for Expansion

The strain on Sarnia’s emergency response system has been used to justify calls for an expensive new police headquarters, but this is a misdiagnosis of the problem. Yes, the SPS is under pressure – but the pressure is from high call volumes and the wrong kind of calls, not an inadequate building. The current headquarters on Christina Street has only six holding cells, and the Chief has noted they “are lodging over six to [seven] prisoners per day” on average. It’s true that on some days the cells are full or exceeded, creating challenges for custody management. However, building a brand-new $90 million facility is not the only solution to this issue – nor is it the most prudent. The root cause of the capacity strain is that we funnel almost every problem in the city into police custody and police facilities. Project Right Response tackles that root cause by diverting non-violent individuals in crisis away from jail cells and into appropriate care, thereby alleviating the custody and space pressures. It also bears emphasizing that an independent review found the existing police building can be brought up to modern standards with about $4.43 million in repairs. That is roughly the cost of one year’s increase in the police budget, and a tiny fraction of the nine-figure sum being discussed for a new build. In other words, we can address the facility’s genuine issues (aging infrastructure, HVAC, accessibility, slight expansion) for pennies on the dollar compared to starting from scratch. By reducing the overall demand on police (fewer low-priority calls and fewer people held in custody), we make it even more feasible to extend the life of the current headquarters. In short, the solution to our police facility problem is not a bigger police station – it’s a smarter deployment of police resources. Project Right Response presents a path to achieve that, rendering the costly “mega headquarters” unnecessary.

2.0 The Proposed Solution: A Community Paramedic Response Unit (CPRU)

To realign resources with community needs, Project Right Response establishes a new branch of first response under the leadership of Lambton County’s paramedic services. The cornerstone is the Community Paramedic Response Unit (CPRU) – a dedicated team of community paramedics and crisis specialists who will handle the bulk of non-violent emergency calls currently misdirected to police. This is a health-led model of community safety.

2.1 Vision & Mission

The CPRU’s mission is to provide reliable, compassionate, and immediate care to individuals in crisis, while reducing reliance on law enforcement for situations that are primarily health or social in nature. This aligns directly with Lambton EMS’s long-term vision to be “innovative leaders in delivering evidence-based paramedicine to our community.” In practical terms, the CPRU will operate as a 24/7 mobile unit, dispatched through the 9-1-1 system, that can respond to mental health crises, substance use issues, and other personal distress calls with medical and social service expertise. The philosophy is “person-centered intervention”: the goal is to stabilize, de-escalate, and connect individuals to appropriate care (whether that means medical treatment, detox services, shelter, or counseling) on the spot. By embedding this capacity in our emergency response system, we ensure that people in crisis get the right response at the right time – a response that prioritizes their health and well-being, not punishment. Notably, this approach is not without precedent. Around the world and in Canada, communities are adopting similar models with great success. For instance, the well-known CAHOOTS program in Eugene sends an EMT and a crisis worker instead of police to behavioral health calls – in 2019, CAHOOTS answered 24,000 calls (17% of all local 911 calls) and only needed police backup in 1% of cases, saving Eugene on the order of $8.5 million annually. And here in Ontario, Toronto’s new pilot crisis service has shown in its first year that the vast majority of mental-health 911 calls can be resolved by civilian teams – nearly 4 in 5 crisis calls were handled with no police involvement. These examples underscore that a well-designed health-led response can improve safety and outcomes while reducing strain on police. Project Right Response brings this innovation home to Sarnia–Lambton, in a form that fits our local context.

2.2 Scope of Practice

The CPRU will be the primary first responder for all 9-1-1 calls in Sarnia that are assessed as non-violent and rooted in mental health, addiction, or social need. When someone calls 9-1-1 for a loved one experiencing a psychotic episode, or to report a person screaming on the street corner who seems to be on drugs, or to request a welfare check on a neighbor who hasn’t been seen in days – these are the types of calls the CPRU will take lead on. Dispatchers (in concert with police and EMS communications) will triage incoming calls using new protocols: if there are no weapons or active violence reported and the issue appears to be medical or psychosocial, the call will be routed to a CPRU team. Importantly, this does not mean police are cut out entirely; it means police are placed in a secondary, support role. If a situation that was thought to be non-violent escalates or if a crew arrives and finds unreported danger, they can request immediate police backup (just as paramedics do now for certain calls). But in the vast majority of these cases, police presence won’t be necessary – and in fact could be counter-productive. The CPRU will handle things like: mental health crisis interventions, overdose response (in coordination with EMS for medical transport if needed), suicide risk assessments, assisting disoriented or intoxicated individuals, conflict resolution between non-violent persons, and providing general wellness checks. The unit will have the capability to transport individuals not to jail, but to the appropriate health facility or social service – for example, taking someone in crisis to the hospital’s mental health wing, or directly to a crisis stabilization bed, or to a shelter. By broadening the options beyond “take to jail or leave at scene,” the CPRU fills a crucial gap in our current system.

2.3 Staffing & Training

The CPRU will be staffed by highly trained Community Paramedics, augmented by crisis intervention workers (such as mental health nurses or social workers) as the program develops. Community paramedics are fully qualified paramedics who receive additional training in mental health, addictions, and social support navigation. Lambton EMS already has a community paramedicine program focused on preventive in-home care; this initiative will expand that skill set into emergency response. Team members will undergo specialized training in de-escalation techniques, trauma-informed care, and cultural competency (Indigenous cultural safety, LGBTQ2S+ awareness, etc.), as well as cross-training with local mental health agencies (e.g. Canadian Mental Health Association) to learn the local referral pathways. The unit’s equipment and approach will differ from a typical ambulance crew: CPRU members will wear soft uniforms (no tactical gear or weapons), drive an appropriately marked vehicle (non-police appearance), and carry medical supplies (including harm reduction supplies like naloxone kits) and basic personal protection. Their training emphasizes engagement and problem-solving: talking people down from crisis, not taking them down in handcuffs. This does not mean sacrificing safety – it means using specialized skills to achieve safety in a way that minimizes trauma. Should a situation turn violent unexpectedly, crews will retreat and call for police assistance. But importantly, by removing the presence of armed officers in the initial response to someone in a mental health crisis, we reduce the likelihood of confrontations or misunderstandings that can lead to use-of-force incidents. The goal is for the CPRU to become a trusted, go-to service for the community – one that people aren’t afraid to call when they or someone they know needs help. Over time, public awareness campaigns (in collaboration with 9-1-1 dispatch) will let residents know: if you’re experiencing a mental health or addiction crisis, calling 9-1-1 will send caring health professionals, not police.

(Note: The CPRU model closely aligns with the Province of Ontario’s direction on crisis response. In May 2024 the Ontario government announced funding for “health-led mobile crisis response teams” in select communities – including Lambton County – explicitly to “avoid unnecessary police involvement” in mental health and addiction crises. Project Right Response would complement and build upon this provincial investment, ensuring Sarnia is a leader in this space.)

3.0 The Five-Year Implementation & Reallocation Plan

Project Right Response will be implemented in phases over five years (2026–2030). This gradual roll-out ensures stability, allows for adjustments based on real-time learning, and minimizes disruption to both SPS and Lambton EMS operations. The financial strategy is to incrementally transfer $10 million from the police budget to the EMS budget over five years, roughly 10% of the SPS budget spread out to avoid shocks. A joint oversight committee – including representatives from the City of Sarnia, Lambton County, SPS leadership, the SPS Board, and Lambton EMS – will govern the implementation, monitor outcomes, and resolve any inter-agency issues. Below is a year-by-year breakdown:

Year 1 (2026): Pilot Program & Data Alignment – Reallocation: $1.5M

Police: The SPS operating budget for 2026 will be reduced by approximately $1.5 million. This initial reduction can be absorbed through the department’s reserve funds and efficiency savings (for example, by deferring certain capital purchases or using a portion of the healthy reserve SPS has built up). Importantly, no sworn officers will be laid off or taken off the road in Year 1. The reduction targets areas that will be naturally eased by this project (such as overtime costs for guarding mental health patients at hospital, which the CPRU will help reduce).

Paramedics: Lambton EMS receives an additional $1.5 million (funded by the City’s transfer of the SPS savings) to launch the CPRU pilot. With this funding, the EMS can hire 6–8 community paramedics (some possibly redeployed from within if available, others newly recruited) and acquire at least one dedicated response vehicle equipped for the new unit. The funding covers salaries, training, vehicle purchase and outfitting, and initial program administration. Lambton EMS will also work with local health partners to integrate a crisis worker (e.g. a seconded social worker or mental health nurse) into the pilot on a part-time basis.

Actions: In Year 1, the CPRU will operate as a pilot program during peak hours (for example, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, likely afternoon into late night when most crisis calls occur). The unit will co-respond alongside police for certain call types at the start. This means when a relevant 9-1-1 call comes in (say, a suicide threat), both a police officer and the CPRU vehicle are dispatched. The purpose of this co-response phase is to establish protocols, build trust between police officers and paramedics, and ensure no call “falls through the cracks.” Data sharing agreements will be established so that SPS and EMS can jointly track outcomes (e.g. how many calls the CPRU handled, how many needed police backup, response times, etc.). By the end of Year 1, we expect to see clear trends that will inform expansion – for instance, we might find that in, say, 100 pilot calls, only 5 required any police action (which would mirror the experience elsewhere). Success in Year 1 will be measured in part by officer time saved – SPS should start to see a dip in the time officers spend on non-criminal calls, as those are increasingly handled by the CPRU.

Year 2 (2027): Expansion & 9-1-1 Dispatch Integration – Reallocation: $2.0M

Police: The SPS budget for 2027 is reduced by an additional $2.0 million. This can be achieved through a combination of attrition (not filling a handful of retiring/non-critical positions) and freezing or delaying planned expansions in areas that the CPRU will render less critical. For example, if SPS was considering hiring additional officers primarily to deal with mental health calls or starting a new unit to address homelessness, those funds can be redirected since the CPRU is taking on that mandate. The SPSB and Chief can also look at trimming certain line items – the Year 2 reduction represents roughly 5% of the police budget, a target that should be attainable given the efficiencies gained. Notably, by Year 2 the need for constant police co-response will diminish, reducing overtime and fuel costs for SPS.

Paramedics: The EMS budget increases by $2.0 million in 2027, allowing the CPRU to expand to full 24/7 coverage. This means hiring additional community paramedics to staff multiple shifts and adding a second (and possibly third) response unit vehicle. By the end of Year 2, the CPRU should have around 12–15 staff, enough to operate at least two crews around the clock. Lambton EMS will also formalize partnerships with local organizations (e.g. CMHA, Withdrawal Management) to have on-call crisis workers or peer support specialists available to pair with the paramedic crews when needed.

Actions: Year 2 focus is on integrating the CPRU into the emergency dispatch system. Sarnia Police, Lambton EMS, and the provincial ambulance dispatch center will work together to update 9-1-1 call triage protocols. The goal is that by mid-2027, a 9-1-1 call classified as a mental health crisis or overdose (with no crime in progress) will be dispatched directly to the CPRU, without automatically dispatching a police unit. This requires training dispatchers to ask the right screening questions. We will also establish a dispatch liaison – a police staff member in the communications center who can monitor and quickly deploy police if a CPRU crew radios for assistance. In essence, by the end of Year 2 the CPRU moves from pilot to an integral part of first response: citizens calling 9-1-1 will begin to get a paramedic-led team as the default for non-violent crises. Public communication will ramp up as well, informing the community about this new service. We anticipate by late 2027, SPS will already see a noticeable drop in total calls for service handled by police (as many are now diverted), and officers who do attend these scenes will typically transfer care to the CPRU and return to duty quickly. Early metrics from other cities support this approach – for example, Toronto’s crisis teams in their first six months diverted 78% of crisis calls away from police entirely, and we aim for similar diversion rates in Sarnia once fully implemented.

Year 3 (2028): Full Operational Handoff – Reallocation: $2.5M

Police: The 2028 police budget is reduced by $2.5 million (approximately another ~6% cut). By this stage, the SPS should be realizing significant savings from reduced workload: patrol officers will be spending far fewer hours on hospital waits or repetitive mental health calls, which translates into less overtime and better allocation of existing personnel. It’s conceivable that some vacancy management can occur (if, say, several officers retire, maybe only a portion are replaced) without affecting core policing, because the call volume and workload mix have changed. Crucially, public safety will not be compromised – in fact, with more uniformed officers freed from non-core duties, they can concentrate on crime prevention and enforcement.

Paramedics: With an additional $2.5 million infusion in 2028, the CPRU becomes fully operational as a permanent division of Lambton EMS. Staffing will be brought to the target level (likely 20+ personnel including paramedics, crisis clinicians, and support staff) to allow multiple teams to be on duty city-wide at all times. By Year 3, the fleet may include 3 specialized response vehicles (e.g., SUVs or vans equipped for transporting patients safely and comfortably, stocked with medical and harm reduction supplies). The funding will also be used to establish a physical base of operations for the CPRU – for instance, a small facility or co-location at the hospital or near the downtown core, where the teams can station when not on calls, resupply, and liaise with partners.

Actions: Year 3 marks the formal hand-off of most non-violent crisis calls to the CPRU as the primary responder. By January 2028, SPS will no longer routinely dispatch police units to mental health, overdose, or similar calls unless the CPRU requests backup (or a weapon/violence is reported). This is a major milestone: it means a substantial portion of traditional police call volume is now being handled by the health system. A comprehensive public education campaign will roll out to support this transition – including informational materials to 9-1-1 callers (e.g. a recorded message could reassure callers that a specialized team is being sent), community town halls, and media coverage to highlight success stories. We will emphasize that this is about improving service: citizens should call 9-1-1 for help as usual, and now they will often get a different kind of helper at their door. By the end of 2028, we expect Sarnia to be seeing tangible benefits. Police response times for priority criminal calls should improve, because patrol officers aren’t tied up elsewhere. Conversely, people in crisis will be getting faster attention from CPRU teams because those teams aren’t handling crimes or busy with law enforcement tasks – their sole focus is mental health and social emergencies. Year 3 will also include a thorough evaluation report to City and County councils, showing data such as: number of calls responded to by CPRU, number of police backup requests made (we anticipate very few), outcomes of those calls (how many patients transported to hospital, connected to services, etc.), and the impact on police call stats (e.g. decline in mental health calls handled by SPS). This data-driven approach will allow any mid-course corrections if needed, but all signs from comparable programs suggest we will see positive results by this stage.

Year 4 (2029): System Optimization – Reallocation: $2.0M

Police: Another $2.0 million is reallocated from SPS in 2029, reflecting efficiencies gained. By now, the policing landscape in Sarnia will have shifted. With fewer low-priority calls, the SPS may choose to restructure its units to capitalize on the freed capacity. For instance, more officers could be assigned to proactive traffic enforcement or to a directed community patrol in high-crime areas, since they aren’t tied up in ER hallways waiting with mental health patients. Detectives could take on more files or clear backlogs. Essentially, this funding reallocation cements a new status quo: a slightly smaller police budget that is tightly focused on core police work. Notably, by Year 4 the SPS should also be seeing reduced liability and costs associated with use-of-force incidents or complaints, as those high-risk encounters (with mentally ill individuals, etc.) are far less frequent when health teams handle those situations.

Paramedics: The 2029 EMS funding bump of $2.0 million will be used to enhance and refine the CPRU model. This may include embedding additional specialists with the teams, such as having a mental health clinician or social worker onboard every CPRU shift (either as a third person on the team or available for immediate consult via tablet/telehealth). It will also facilitate creating direct referral pathways: for example, funding short-term “safe beds” or transportation agreements so that when CPRU encounters someone who needs a place to go (but not a hospital), they have options ready. Part of this year’s funds could support partnership agreements with local agencies (women’s shelters, detox facilities, supportive housing providers) to prioritize CPRU referrals. By Year 4, we can also invest in community outreach and preventive work: CPRU staff might do follow-up visits (within 24-48 hours of a crisis) to check on individuals – preventing repeat crises.

Actions: With four years of operations, 2029 will be about optimization and fine-tuning. The Joint Oversight Committee will conduct a full performance review of the project. Key questions: Are there call types that should be added or removed from CPRU’s scope? How is the collaboration between CPRU and SPS – are there any gaps or overlaps to adjust? We will solicit feedback from front-line police officers, paramedics, emergency room staff, and, importantly, clients who have been served by the CPRU (to gauge satisfaction and areas for improvement). Any necessary policy tweaks (for instance, if certain rare scenarios weren’t originally contemplated in protocols) will be made. We will also look to implement any new best practices emerging in this rapidly evolving field of community safety. By this time, other Canadian cities may have launched similar programs; Sarnia should remain agile and learn from them. Throughout Year 4, public reporting will continue, keeping council and citizens informed of the positive impact (for example, publishing statistics like reduction in repeat 9-1-1 calls from high-needs individuals, or testimonials of situations de-escalated peacefully by CPRU). One specific goal by the end of 2029: Improve SPS’s weighted clearance rate for serious offences. With more officer time and resources free for crime-solving, we expect to see more crimes cleared (solved) and perhaps a reduction in violent crime rates. Essentially, by handling the lower end of the call spectrum, the CPRU enables the police to perform better on the higher end – making Sarnia safer overall.

Year 5 (2030): Program Maturity & Review of Infrastructure Needs – Reallocation: $2.0M

Police: The final $2.0 million transfer brings the cumulative reallocation to $10 million. At this point, Sarnia’s police budget will be leaner (in the low-$30M range) and right-sized to its true law enforcement mandate. The expectation is that by 2030, SPS will be managing a significantly reduced call volume overall, and almost no calls in certain categories (mental health, etc.). The officers on duty will be those necessary for public safety – patrol, investigations, traffic, community policing – and the budget will reflect that pared-down, efficient mission. The SPS leadership and board should view this as an opportunity, not a loss: it’s an opportunity to refocus on quality of policing over quantity, and to deepen partnerships with the health system.

Paramedics: The EMS budget in 2030 has an extra $2.0M (relative to baseline) to fully stabilize the CPRU as an ongoing service. By now the CPRU will have several years of data and outcomes to justify its existence, ideally becoming a permanent fixture funded jointly by the City and County (and potentially with provincial health grants, as the province sees success in these models). Lambton EMS will continue to employ the needed complement of community paramedics and will have embedded this program into its Community Paramedicine portfolio. We anticipate that by Year 5, the concept may even expand county-wide if Lambton decides to replicate Sarnia’s success in other municipalities (with appropriate cost-sharing). For Sarnia, the CPRU will be a normalized part of emergency response, much like fire or police – people will know, when you call for help in a personal crisis, a health team is coming.

Actions: Year 5 will feature a comprehensive review and sunset report to Sarnia City Council, Lambton County Council, and the Sarnia Police Services Board. This report will detail the five-year outcomes of Project Right Response, including: five-year trends in police-reported crime and clearance rates, EMS response metrics, community health outcomes (such as reduced ER visits or decreased overdose fatalities if applicable), and financial impacts. The most critical action in 2030 is to formally reassess the SPS’s capital infrastructure needs in light of the new operating reality. With call volumes down and custody pressures eased, the justification for a giant new police building should be revisited with fresh eyes. The data will likely support what we suspect now: that Sarnia does not need a $90 million police campus for a right-sized police service. Instead, renovating and modestly expanding the current headquarters – the option that was estimated at just $4.43 million – will prove to be the prudent path. By investing a small portion of the saved operating funds, the City can modernize the existing station (fixing any structural issues, updating the cell area if needed, adding on to administrative areas, etc.) and meet the service’s needs for the foreseeable future. In short, Project Right Response will not only have improved day-to-day safety and well-being in Sarnia, it will have averted the construction of a costly new facility. The money not spent on bricks-and-mortar can instead continue to be spent where it yields real results: on personnel and programs that directly serve the public. At the end of Year 5, the City and its partners will codify the ongoing funding arrangement for the CPRU (making permanent the shift of resources), and we will celebrate Sarnia as a leader in smart, compassionate community safety reform.

4.0 Expected Outcomes & Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Implementing Project Right Response is a means to an end – the end being a safer, healthier community. We will track a variety of performance metrics to ensure the plan is delivering on its promises. Below are the key outcomes we expect and how we will measure them:

Reduction in Police Call Load: SPS should see a significant decline in the number of calls for service they must handle. In particular, we anticipate a sharp drop (potentially 40–50% or more) in categories like Mental Health Act calls, suicide attempts, overdoses, “check well-being” calls, and other non-criminal incidents, once the CPRU is fully operational. KPI: Year-over-year decrease in police-attended calls in these categories, tracked in the SPS annual report. (For example, if SPS responded to 1,000 mental health-related calls in 2024, that might drop to 500 or fewer by 2028.) This will quantitatively prove that officers have more bandwidth for other duties.

Improved Police Effectiveness on Crime: With more time and resources available for true police work, we expect improvements in outcomes like response time to 911 calls for crimes in progress, and the weighted clearance rate (the percentage of crimes solved, weighted by severity). Sarnia’s clearance rates have room for improvement, and freeing officers from non-core tasks is a direct way to boost them. KPI: An increase in the weighted clearance rate for violent and property crimes by 2030 (e.g. from the current rate upwards by several percentage points), as well as qualitative feedback from police that they are able to be more proactive (e.g. more R.I.D.E. programs, more community patrols) due to having fewer low-priority calls.

Better Health & Safety Outcomes for Residents in Crisis: This is perhaps the most important metric – the human impact. We anticipate that the CPRU’s specialized response will lead to safer and more positive outcomes in crisis situations. This includes fewer use-of-force incidents, fewer arrests of people who really need healthcare, and more people getting connected to the help they need. KPIs: Track the number of 911 mental health/addiction calls that result in no arrest/no criminal charge (we want this to be the vast majority – and as seen in Toronto’s pilot, it was 78% with no police at all involved). Also, track the utilization of referral services: how many people did CPRU connect to ongoing resources like counseling, treatment programs, or housing supports. Another critical metric: repeat calls for the same individuals. Success means that the individuals who frequently call 911 for help (or about whom 911 is frequently called) begin to stabilize and rely less on emergency services over time. A reduction in high-utilizer 911 calls would indicate we are breaking the cycle of crisis.

Fiscal Savings and Cost Avoidance: By the end of five years, the City of Sarnia will be saving money annually due to this project. Some savings are direct (e.g. reduced police overtime expenses, possibly lower injury claims or liabilities, etc.), and others are cost avoidances (not having to staff as many new police officers, avoiding the bond issuance or debt for a new facility). KPIs: Document the changes in the police budget trajectory – for instance, instead of the steady increases of ~5-7% per year, we may see flat or even reduced police budgets after inflation, thanks to lowered demand. Another concrete measure: capital expenditure avoided – if by 2030 the City forgoes building a new HQ and opts for the $4.4M renovation, that’s tens of millions saved; this should be noted as a victory for taxpayers. We will also look at EMS costs and show how the new investments have been offset by reductions in other areas (for example, fewer police cruisers needed in service, etc.). While the primary goal is not to cut budgets but to reallocate them, we nonetheless expect that the cost per incident handled will drop, since a CPRU team is less expensive to operate than a full police response and subsequent justice system processing.

Public Satisfaction and Perception: Although harder to quantify, it’s important to gauge how the community feels about the new model. We want Sarnia’s residents – including those who have interacted with the CPRU – to feel safer and better served. KPI: Conduct community surveys (possibly through the City’s community safety and well-being plan process) before and after implementation. Look for an increase in positive responses to questions like “Do you think Sarnia provides appropriate help to people in mental health crisis?” or “How confident are you in local emergency services’ ability to handle a personal crisis situation?” Additionally, feedback from hospitals and social service providers can serve as a qualitative indicator – are emergency rooms seeing less strain from police-escorted mental health apprehensions? Are outreach workers noticing fewer confrontational situations? These narratives are important to capture.

By tracking these and other indicators, the oversight committee will ensure that Project Right Response stays on target. If an area is not meeting expectations, we can investigate why and adjust the approach. The overarching expectation, however, is that by 2030 Sarnia will be a provincial leader in demonstrating that a community can enhance safety while also reducing its reliance on traditional policing for non-criminal issues.

5.0 Conclusion

The choice before Sarnia’s leaders and residents is clear. We can continue with the status quo – continue pouring millions into a reactionary, enforcement-centric system that is ill-suited to much of the task at hand, and continue to struggle with the consequences (rising costs, persistent social problems, and pressures to build ever-bigger police infrastructure). Or, we can choose a smarter path – one that many communities across Canada and beyond are beginning to embrace: invest in the root causes and the right responders. Project Right Response is a blueprint for that smarter path. It is a compassionate, fiscally responsible, and proven approach to community safety. By reallocating a portion of our resources to create a health-led crisis response unit, we treat mental health and addiction issues as the public health challenges they are – not as crimes. We ensure that those in crisis get help, not handcuffs. At the same time, we refocus our police on what they are trained to do best – address crime, target violence, and build community relationships to prevent crime.

This strategic plan has been backed with evidence and real-world case studies. We have seen that when cities implement these changes, the results are overwhelmingly positive: police departments report being less strained and more effective, vulnerable people receive care that actually helps them (instead of cycling through cells and courts), and overall community well-being improves. In Sarnia’s case, we also stand to save a tremendous amount of money in the long run – both by avoiding the construction of a lavish new police headquarters and by stemming the costly tide of criminalizing social issues. As one local columnist noted, “We have a functioning police headquarters that needs repairs, not a replacement palace.” The true path to safety is not through bricks and mortar, but through investing in people and appropriate services.

Project Right Response asks our city to be bold and innovative, but it is by no means radical. It is a practical plan built on common sense: put our money where it makes the most difference. To that end, the endorsement of Lambton County’s paramedic leadership and the support of provincial initiatives give us confidence that this plan is not only achievable but likely to attract broader support (perhaps even provincial funding down the line, given that Ontario is encouraging community paramedicine models). By approving this five-year plan, Sarnia City Council, Lambton County Council, and the Sarnia Police Services Board will be jointly authorizing a paradigm shift that could serve as a model for mid-sized communities everywhere. We will demonstrate that you don’t have to be a big metropolis to implement progressive community safety reforms – smaller cities can lead the way too.

In closing, the implementation of Project Right Response will mean that five years from now, Sarnia is a safer, healthier, and more fiscally stable community. Our police officers will be less stretched and more effective in their core duties. Our paramedics and health partners will be empowered to save lives and resolve crises that previously went unmanaged. Taxpayers will see more value for their dollars, and many of our most vulnerable neighbors will see a path out of the cycle of crisis. This is the future that Project Right Response offers – a future where the right response to each emergency becomes the norm, and where Sarnia stands as a forward-thinking community that put the well-being of its people first.

We urge Council and the Board to support this plan. Adopting Project Right Response is not just a budget decision or an operational tweak; it is a statement about the kind of community we want Sarnia to be. Let that statement be that we are committed to innovation, compassion, and smart governance in the pursuit of public safety. The evidence is on our side, the community is ready for change, and the timing is right to pivot. With your leadership, Sarnia can set a powerful example by launching Project Right Response – ensuring that when our residents call for help, they get the right response every time.