Another Ontario police force has an arbitrated settlement and it’s worth noting since the Ottawa Police Services Board and the Ottawa Police Association are waiting for a decision on their own contract.

An arbitrator has awarded Waterloo Regional police officers increases of 2.7% in each of 2012 and 2013 and 2.95% in 2014, according to The Record.

Those percentage increases are what police managers and politicians keep a close eye on across the province.

Ottawa is trying to keep its police salary increases to 2.5% annually. Officials on the management side are anxious to get the decision since it was expected a couple of weeks ago. I recently tried reaching the arbitrator to find out what’s taking so long but didn’t receive a response to a voice message or e-mail.

Senior officers in Ottawa negotiated a new contract with the police board. In that deal, it appears the board was successful front-loading the increases (four-year deal with annual increases of 3% in first two years and 2% in last two years) so the next negotiations begin where the final year leaves off at 2%.

Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder was fired up today about a recent copper theft at a park in her ward.

She said the city lost about $70,000 in copper wiring between thefts at Lytle Park and a snow dump on Strandherd Dr.

Harder said the wiring at the park was torn up from under the lights.

I got the impression she wants police talking more about the theft and making sure residents are vigilant. She’s a member of the police services board, so I assume her advice holds a bit of weight around the cop shop’s executive offices.

If people see shady behaviour, “make the call,” Harder said.

Of course, this kind of crime isn’t unique around the national capital.

If you know something about the Barrhaven thefts, call 613-236-1222, ext. 7300.

The city is really turning the screws on the province when it comes to arbitration reform.

West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry, the head of the police board, is virtually screaming for changes as he sees police salary increases rise across the province. It only takes one or two police services to give substantial salary increases to give arbitrators a reason to match.

The province’s arbitration system was one of the key points during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa last month. El-Chantiry and Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli (a lawyer by trade who specializes in labour and mediation) met with Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey.

And now, Mayor Jim Watson has followed up with a letter to Jeffrey calling for “structural changes” to the arbitration system for emergency services.

Then there’s this recommendation to the police board to write to Premier Dalton McGuinty, Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur, PC Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath to essentially keep the OPP contract costs down. If the OPP sign a big collective agreement, it would trickle down to Ontario municipalities.

It seems the province is getting closer to make some kind of change to the arbitration system. The Tories have a bill and the Liberals will have their own proposal. They’re both on the same page with wanting to do something, but we’re left to see if they can find common ground.

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Follow City Hall reporter Jon Willing on Twitter at @JonathanWilling and at ottawasun.com

Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais wants the city to have a crime prevention strategy on guns in Ottawa.

Says Blais: “Presently, there is no single strategy from which city programs, not for profit organizations and the Ottawa Police Service are working.  Moreover, there is no group responsible for implementing the strategy or measuring its effectiveness.”

I don’t know if the debate will go down this road, but Blais would be absolutely aware the city has an organization designed to do exactly what he’s proposing: Crime Prevention Ottawa.

Which, then, will likely cause people to question why CPO isn’t dipping into the guns issue.

CPO has struggled with how it should use its advocacy resources — so much so that it recently hired a consultant to help figure out, in part, how it could raise its profile.

Full disclosure here: I agreed to be interviewed by the consultant June 20 to get my opinion, since I try to keep tabs on what CPO is up to.

What I told the consultant was CPO needs to jump on issues du jour. Today’s issue is gun crime.

CPO has done some great work cleaning up Vanier and speaking out against sexual assault. Recently it held an event where hospital officials released data on violence and trauma.

However, there’s this feeling the organization isn’t nimble enough to respond to an emerging narrative.

We’ll check in with Stittsville Coun. Shad Qadri today to see what he thinks about all this, particularly Blais’ statements. Qadri is the chairman of CPO.

This will be good news for Ottawa police, but I would have been surprised if the province discontinued the funding.

The program has received attention because of the recent shootings in Toronto. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford met Premier Dalton McGuinty today during the so-called “Summit of the Gun.”

The Provincial Anti-Violence Intervention Strategies (PAVIS) money pays for the Ottawa police direct action response team (DART), which is pretty much a special anti-gang unit.

As Sun crime reporter Danielle Bell reported earlier this year, DART temporarily brought additional officers into the team to help the guns and gangs unit go after gun crime in Ottawa. Chief Charles Bordeleau had been hoping the province would commit to additional years with PAVIS money since the current funding dries up at the end of next March.