The Central East Correctional Centre (CECC) is a maximum security, correctional / detention centre, located at 541 Highway 36, City of Kawartha Lakes.It is operated under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services of Ontario. People convicted of crimes with custodial sentences of less than two years are housed in this jail, along with a large population of inmates that have been detained prior to trial. The inmates that have been detained prior to trial have been deemed by the courts to be a flight risk, or too dangerous to be at large. The CECC has a capacity to house 1200 of these inmates.

The Kawartha Lakes Police Service assumed policing responsibilities of the CECC in February 2003. Three Kawartha Lakes Police Service officers are assigned to the Institutional Investigations Unit. Members of this unit are responsible for conducting all criminal investigations within the CECC. When dealing with violent criminals, police officers normally rely on modern police equipment and weaponry to ensure their safety. On a daily basis, members of the Institutional Investigations Unit attend at the CECC and walk the one hundred yard journey into the massive ten acre building, through fifteen high security steel doors, to their office deep inside of the jail. The police officers conduct investigations ranging from drug trafficking, to threats of violence and assaults between inmates and on correctional staff members. The police officers conduct their investigations inside the CECC in plain clothes with no access to their regular police issued equipment. Inside the CECC, the police officers of the Institutional Investigations Unit must rely on their communication skills as their primary use of force option.

The success of the Institutional Investigations Unit relies heavily on the working relationship built and maintained between the Kawartha Lakes Police Service and the Security Managers of the CECC. It can also be measured by the 818 criminal charges processed in the first two and half years of operation, including 111 drug seizures and 36 "jail-made" weapons seizures.