With the move to the Venture13 building, Cobourg Police Service – Corporate Services has doubled in size.
Director of Corporate Services Gina Wilson spoke to Today’s Northumberland about the move from the Cobourg Police Station to the second floor of the Venture13 building in June taking up the second floor.
Cobourg Police Corporate Services processes criminal record verifications for third party providers across Canada.
Corporate Services currently serves third party screening companies from coast to coast making it the largest service of its type in Canada.
The service has come a long way in the 15 plus years when Wilson would spend two hours a day at her desk doing record checks making approximately $10,000 per year.
In 2017 the service provided over 420,000 criminal record checks for various organizations which represents over two million dollars worth of revenue.
“This is absolutely fantastic,” exclaims Wilson.
“It provides valuable employment for people in the community. We’ve already staffed almost 30 skilled staff. In these days where it’s tough to get jobs, decent paying jobs, this is something that works well.”
“The revenue has gone directly back into the community and police services.”
“We are able to assist many programs in the community along with upgrading police equipment through funding created.”
Corporate Services takes up 13,000 square feet of second floor of the Venture13 building
“A lot of new systems are in place and staff is up and running at full capacity which works really well.”
Wilson said the main benefit of the move is the additional space.
“We were crammed into three small offices at the police station which is an older building. That made it limited in hiring additional staff. Now we’re in a position where we can hire additional staff now that we have space.”
At the police station there were four to five work stations in each office, but at Venture13 there are 26 work stations which more than doubles the size of what it was at the police station on King Street.
“We have team leaders in place that would have to move from area to area so there was no consistency. It really compartmentalized each of the groups. Which didn’t help.”
“It was very limiting.”
“I was removed from where they were, now I’m in the mix with everybody and more available.”
Wilson adds, they couldn’t hire anymore people as space was maxed out and there was no where to train.
“We had to stagger shifts which didn’t always provide what we needed for coverage for our clients.”
Corporate Services at Venture13 is an extension of the Cobourg Police Services and is very well secured for obvious reasons.
“We put a lot of energy this time into really moving forward into a business. And with business you have to put investment back. We really haven’t put any investment back into this (Corporate Services) department over the years.”
“We put a lot more energy into our lounge and kitchen area trying to make it the centrepoint of our business. So when we do bring in clients and potential clients we want them to feel that we are very confident and successful in hopes of securing future business. And I think the room absolutely reflects that.”
The room “shows that we know what we are doing” boasting a large fireplace, patio, sliding doors, lounge area and kitchen area costing in the area.
The future of Corporate Services for the Cobourg Police is something Wilson says will continue to grow.
“We have a very strong working relationship with our third party criminal record check providers and with the RCMP. We have on our side a great amount of knowledge and experience dealing with all the different changes that have happened throughout the years. I see us continuing to increase our base of providing criminal record checks.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
