The makeshift customs station on Brookdale Avenue continues to be a hot topic in the community, and it's also become a hot spot for city police.
Since the start of the year, Cornwall police officers have been summoned to the foot of the Seaway bridge 29 times to deal with a variety of calls ranging from weapons and drug offences to drunk drivers and breaches of court conditions.
That works out to a call to the bridge once every second or third day, and each call would generate an hour or two of work for the officer involved.
Cornwall Police Chief Dan Parkinson said they haven't been "run off their feet" by the provisional customs station, however he noted the bridge calls are taking officers away from their general patrol duties around the city.
"They're not 10-minute calls (at the bridge)," he added.
The city has a written agreement in place with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) do deal with the reimb u r s e m e nt of expenses that arise from the makeshift port of entry, however the pact doesn't deal with day-to-day police work.
The city was reimbursed for the round-the-clock police supervision that was in place for several days last summer when the bridge first reopened following the dispute over the arming of border guards on Cornwall Island.
As for the ongoing calls to the bridge, Parkinson doesn't think it would make much sense to try and recoup those costs.
Crime is crime, he said, whether it's discovered at the foot of the bridge or on a city street.
"It all comes out of the same basket as far as I'm concerned," the police chief added.
Although the makeshift customs station has placed a new demand on the city police service, it has also created some benefits from a law enforcement perspective.
Parkinson said the police service hasn't had to deal with a single pursuit over the bridge since the current customs configuration was put in place. The police chief said it used to be a common thing for people to try and flee from police over the bridge, however that would prove to be a pretty risky proposition now given the layout of the customs and toll booth facilities.
"It's really tight," Parkinson said. Beyond that, RCMP officials have also stated that the customs facility on Brookdale Avenue has made it more difficult for smugglers to transport contraband cigarettes across the bridge.