SHELBURNE, ONT. -- The Ontario Provincial Police officially took over policing in Shelburne Thursday.
Last July, the town council voted to dismantle Shelburne's police force after 141 years.
Shelburne Mayor Wade Mills said the decision came down to dollars and cents. "It got to the point where the town could not afford to continue to provide what the service needed to operate functionally. Unfortunately, that's a sad reality facing small communities across the province."
The OPP hired every member of the Shelburne Police who applied for a position with the force.
The mayor said the newly-hired provincial police officers would attend the OPP academy in Orillia and then be back in the town they've grown to know over the years. "So the faces won't change. The arm patches will."
The OPP will take over any ongoing investigations. "Our records management ends up taking it on, and any unsolved cases that are still ongoing now become part of the OPP case files," said Dufferin OPP Detachment Commander Terry Ward.
The Shelburne Police's disbanding unites law enforcement in all of Dufferin County under a single OPP banner.
