The Sarnia Police Service has admitted that financial figures used by Chief Derek Davis to defend his record on infrastructure spending included costs incurred before he was hired.
In a formal response to Mayor Mike Bradley’s 2026 budget directives, Chief Davis submitted a signed letter on November 19, 2025, aiming to debunk “false and misleading narratives” regarding his administration. A central point of contention was the Mayor’s claim that the police service had not prioritized capital upgrades since Davis took office in 2022. To counter this, Davis provided a detailed ledger of investments, including $33,881 spent on engineering for a firing range at the Lambton Mall training centre.
However, Chief Davis was not sworn in until May 31, 2022. When a citizen questioned the police service online regarding the timing of the $33,881 expenditure, the service’s official account acknowledged the discrepancy. They confirmed that while the costs were incurred in 2022, they “occurred prior to Chief Davis’ arrival in May” and were authorized under a previous administration.
The admission highlights a contradiction in how the police service accounts for its spending. In the same letter to City Council, the Chief argued that previous boards had underfunded the headquarters by excluding mall-based training centre costs from historical maintenance totals. He then reversed this logic in the following section, including those same mall-based costs to bolster the spending totals of his own tenure.
When the citizen pointed out that the Chief was citing evidence of his own performance that predated his employment, the Sarnia Police Service’s social media response downplayed the error. The official account told the citizen to “simply remove 2022” if it helped, claiming that the overall conclusion regarding the Chief’s priorities remained unchanged.
This accounting dispute arrives as the Sarnia Police Service Board continues to advocate for a new $91.1 million headquarters. The project has faced scrutiny after a building condition assessment by Dillon Consulting suggested the existing facility could be brought up to current standards for approximately $4.45 million.
