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The announcement Wednesday, in advance of Monday’s police board meeting, is one of Sloly’s first major moves as chief. Sloly was chief for just days, having been sworn in at the end of October 2019, when the service unveiled the 2020 budget plan. But since then, he’s heard repeatedly from officers and the public that staffing remains an issue in how OPS can police the city.

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

“There are important concerns being raised by our community and our front-line members and we need to make key investments in officer staffing now to address the issues we are facing and to improve public safety in Ottawa,” Sloly said.

The plan, the service said, would see all 100 officers on the road fully deployed in 2021 and would mean that “priority policing areas like neighbourhood policing, front-line patrol, gun and gang violence suppression and violence against women have the necessary resources to meet current service demands.”

Sloly has already shown a commitment to expanding the service’s neighbourhood policing model and had suggested after the year’s first homicide that the force would soon be revealing more details of a plan to curb street-level violence.

Ottawa police said Wednesday that the plan was required to make sure that the service can meet the city’s policing needs both immediately and in the long term.

The move would cost nearly $15 million over four years, but to make sure the force could swing the financial changes, a review of all current projects was done.