Smiths Falls Police Chief Jodi Empey (screengrab, YouTube livestream)
Smiths Falls Police Chief Jodi Empey says comparing the town’s municipal police service to the Ontario Provincial Police is not as simple as looking at cost alone.
Empey says the debate is often framed around dollars, but she believes the real value of local policing lies in the level of service residents receive.
The police services employs 32 uniformed officers, though five are on leave and another is on mandated light duties. They also have six full-time civilian employees.
Operating costs in 2025 for the town were $6,414,678, about $345,000 under budget. Empey says she has to anticipate future costs when planning the budget each year, without knowing what grant money could be made available during the year to help ease the financial pressure. The 2026 budget is about $6,775,000.
The proximity of having a local police service saves lives everyday, Empey notes.
Empey says you cannot replace the relationships built with a local police force and their support staff, referencing one incident where a civilian employee helped talk a person down from suicide until constables arrived just in front of their headquarters.
Those are the metrics, the chief says, she focuses on when evaluating the effectiveness of the Smiths Falls Police Service.
In terms of actual numbers, the SFPS handled 7,746 calls for service in 2025, including 1,105 emergency 911 calls.
According to Empey, those community connections cannot easily be replicated by a larger policing model.
The future of policing in Smiths Falls is a topic of discussion approaching each municipal election.
Story by Grant Deme
