Online Property Auctions (Details)

Name of province/ territory:

Ontario

City/ Region:

Toronto

Description of Initiative:

Sale of unclaimed property in accordance with the Police Services Act of Ontario using an online auction process.

Initiative Key Objectives:

Online property auctions:

  • allow for the seamless and fluid continuation of effective inventory management;
  • reduce storage contraints;
  • provide exceptional levels of client satisfaction; and
  • ensure compliance with the Police Services Act of Ontario.

Section Responsible for Implementation:

Property and Evidence Management Unit (PEMU)

Key Contact:

Brenda Radix
Brenda.Radix@torontopolice.on.ca

Groups/ Agencies/ Key Partners Involved:

  • other police services
  • civilian governing authorities
  • other government departments/agencies
  • other: Police Auctions Canada

Level of Involvement (consultative - information sharing) and/or cooperative - direct involvement):

Police Services Board—cooperative/direct involvement. Approval for the initial pilot project and subsequent awarding and renewal of auction contracts must be granted by the PSB.

City of Toronto Legal—consultative and cooperative. As the PSB solicitor, City of Toronto Legal researched and provided a legal opinion as to whether or not conducting auctions online was consistent with the spirit and intent of Section 132 of the Police Services Act of Ontario. In addition, City Legal reviews and approves all contracts and extensions associated with the online auction process.

Other police services / government agencies—consultative. The Toronto Police Service (TPS) was the first agency in Canada to launch an online auction process. Several police services and government agencies (including the Ministry of the Attorney General) have sought feedback, advice, lessons learned, etc., from TPS regarding this initiative.

Police Auctions Canada—cooperative/direct involvement. Current auction vendor.

Amount of Time Initiative has been in Place:

Since 2004.

Reason for Undertaking the Initiative:

Economic/Fiscal– PEMU was experiencing critical storage constraints and increased storage and management costs so it was necessary to establish an efficient and expedited method of inventory reduction for unclaimed miscellaneous items. In addition, PEMU’s current facility did not conform with building codes and municipal planning bylaws to conduct the auctions in-house. Retrofitting the facility to meet the building codes and bylaws would have been cost-prohibitive, and would not have been fiscally responsible. Furthermore, it would have been necessary to increase the authorized strength of the unit in order to facilitate the core responsibilities of conducting auctions online, which would have completely negated the financial gains realized by selling items online.

Resources Required to Implement this Initiative:

There were no hard-dollar costs implementing this initiative other than advertising the launch of the online auction in local newspapers. All of the other costs were soft-dollar and involved the initial research, liaising with City Legal to establish the appropriate contractual requirements, assessment of the pilot project, authoring board reports, etc. The maintenance of the website, photographing of property, customer service, shipping, collection of funds, etc. are all managed by the auction vendor.

Method of Implementation:

Pilot project launched on January 27, 2003.

Key Outcomes of the Initiative:

  • There is increased accessibility for a broader spectrum of the community, not just within the immediate boundaries of the City of Toronto.
  • The auction process is now ongoing on a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week basis, which eliminates the stockpiling of redundant inventory, thereby resulting in the reduction of storage and management costs.
  • A further definitive financial benefit recognized is the increased revenue remitted to the Police Services Board (PSB), which afford the PSB the unique opportunity to increase funding allocated to support community initiatives and endeavours. In addition, bidders and buyers are afforded the opportunity to provide immediate online feedback, which allows the process to be transparent, thereby instilling a high level of public confidence.

Availability of a Communication Strategy:

Yes

Key Messages used to Publicize the Initiative:

Advertisements were published in several newspapers announcing the launch as well as a press conference held at headquarters that was attended and broadcast by several major media agencies. In addition, the results of the pilot project, Request for Quotation documents, and all associated PSB reports are tabled at the PSB’s public meetings, and are available on the PSB website for public consumption.

Forms of Evaluation by which the Initiative will be Assessed:

  • internal
  • quantitative
  • qualitative

Evaluation Completed or Community Feedback Received:

No

Summary of the Outcomes:

This initiative led to an extremely successful outcome. It ensured the seamless and fluid continuation of effective inventory management, reduced storage constraints, provided exceptional levels of client satisfaction and ensured compliance with the Police Services Actof Ontario. Since the inception of the online auction process, other police services and agencies have adopted this same method.

Summary of the Performance Measure Data Collected:

N/A

Economics of Policing Pillars:

Further Details:

Members of PEMU are no longer burdened with the tedious job of arranging the set-up and initialization of an in-house auction, carriage has now been awarded to an independent company.

Additional Comments or Suggestions:

N/A

Record Entry Date:

2013-08-01

Date modified: