Sarnia residents in need of a police background check will soon be able to complete the process online.
The Sarnia Police Service is partnering with Forrest Green Solutions Ltd., a company that does background checks for various police departments.
Police Chief Norm Hansen said moving online should speed things up.
"It streamlines it for sure, and people are able to check online and see at what point they are at in the process, which is nice for them," he said. "Basically [Forrest Green] takes care of the front end of things, the collection of fees, and the online application process."
Chief Hansen said the service's fee for a background check, which is about $43 for the public and less for students and volunteers, will increase a bit when the online system is implemented.
"Our fees are going up slightly, but that also includes the fact that Forrest Green does a lot of other things for us, dashboards for reporting statistics and things like that."
Sarnia Police Chief Norm Hansen.
Chief Hansen said their fees will remain inline or below other police services in Ontario.
Chief Hansen also said the online system should remove some problems for Sarnia police.
"Some of the things we've had is that people will come in, apply for a police check and then it just sits there, and we've done the work but they never pick it up, so no fees are collected, and that's taxing on our records department."
Chief Hansen said the online system should be up and running in January or February of 2020.
