Regional police are promising more collaboration with regional council in the lead-up to next year's budget.
It comes as council has been decidedly split on the police budget for this year.
Not even a week ago, a tie vote on regional council saw this year's policing budget avoid being sent back for cuts by the narrowest of margins.
One of the concerns at the time was why council was only getting a chance to offer feedback after the board had already given its final approval.
"Our commitment today was to come back with a very thoughtful plan [and] to listen to the expectations of regional council and individual council members so that, in the future, we have a clear, collaborative understanding of what is required from a regional council standpoint when they consider our budget positions in the future," said WRPS Chief of Police Mark Crowell after the meeting.
The need for more collaboration with council was also echoed elsewhere with some on the board suggesting part of the mix-up may have had to do with varying levels of experience.
"There's various new faces around our table, around the regional council table, and whenever you have those types of changes I always talk about communication as being pretty critical," said board member Tony Giovinazzo.
Others also suggested police look outward in their search for a solution.
"What kind of communications and community dialogue that others are doing, [so] that we can take the best of what's there so we can kind of avoid some of the talking past each other," said Ian McLean.
Meantime, there was also suggestion some of the criticism on council may have been more political than practical.
"We're getting into the political realm of some councillors that, no matter how we would have said it, would have tripped-up the information we were providing," said Coun. Doug Craig. "I don't think we should over react, I think we should just simply improve in small steps and be ready for it next year."
