The Waterloo Regional Police Service Board is recommending the region approve the service's 2022 budget, which tops out at a record $198 million and includes phasing in 35 new full-time officers for an overall increase of $12.4 million.
The recommended 6.7 per cent increase comes a month after the WRPS presented its initial 2022 draft budget with five scenarios to boost staffing levels by as much as 55 new officers, adding an increase to the operating budget of between 7.19 per cent and 11.64 per cent.
Since then, staff made a further review of the base budget to find efficiencies, reductions and changes amounting to $3.5 million.
Those reductions came from things like delaying the implementation of in-car and body-worn cameras, eliminating the purchase of six pool vehicles and a digital evidence management system, switching from dry cleaning uniforms to machine washing, increasing a salary vacancy gapping target and transferring $1.5 million from two reserve funds.
The proposed 2022 capital budget remains the same at $42 million.
Workload and its impact on current members is behind the request for an increased complement of officers.
With 187 staff per 100,000 population, WRPS has the third lowest ratio of staffing in the country and is sitting at the median level among upper tier municipalities.
The median number of staff per 100,000 for single tier municipalities is 258, according to a report from the Municipal Benchmarking Network of Canada that was presented to board members before the revised budget package.
The region also has the fourth-highest workload per officer with 40 incidents per officer where the median is 21. That number doesn’t capture all the other work that’s done in the community including crime prevention.
The budget request comes as population growth and a spike in gun violence recently landed Waterloo region in fourth place on the crime severity index of 12 large police forces across the province.
There were 1,303 violent crimes per 100,000 population reported in the region in 2020.
That’s higher than the 631 average for upper tier Ontario municipalities and higher than the national average of 1,131 per 100,000 for single tier cities.
“This is the narrative we’ve been trying to explain,” said Chief of Police Bryan Larkin. “I do believe they’re doing the best work that they can, but I do believe they’re at their tipping point."
In addition, Larkin said WRPS provides $5.8 million in regional support through services like bylaw dispatching for cities, operating its 911 communications centre, flood watch and alert services, regional Indigenous initiatives and reconciliation, e-ticketing and the Children’s Safety Village, with no cost recovery.
So far this year there have been 226,736 calls for service. That amounts to a call every two minutes and 19 seconds.
Because of the workload, many members suffer the cumulative impact of trauma, compassion fatigue and the knowledge that impact continues, Larkin said.
“I would not be asking for an investment in resources if I did not believe they were required.”
The additional investment in resources will be used to target increases in incidents of child exploitation, road safety and major crime investigations.
Offering the example of work in cybercrime, Larkin said the force ran 203 cybercrime investigations in 2021, analyzed 729 devices, handled 448 video forensic requests, and responded to 178 incidents for open source intelligence with its five member team.
“It’s not enough,” he said.
Internet childhood exploitation officers launched 205 new cases in 2021, seized 259 devices, reviewed 16.7 million images and 650,326 videos.
Waterloo regional police also see an average of 37.3 incidents of child pornography per 100,000, far outpacing all communities across the country, Larkin said, adding the traumatic impact of this work takes a toll and needs support with technology and enhanced staffing.
WRPS also issued 25,034 road safety charges this year, including 522 to impaired drivers, 384 for stunt driving, and 11,331 speeding charges.
“The simple answer isn’t always electronic enforcement,” he said.
To date this year, police in the region have responded to 833 overdose calls, 84 deaths and 48 naloxone administrations.
The 14 shootings to date have added to the toll.
Using the example of the recent double shooting on Huber Street in Kitchener, Larkin said their response resulted in an economic impact to WRPS of $29,000 in the first 24 hours and amounted to 435 total investigative hours, involving 61 members of the force.
Tackling the “challenging and growing trend” of human trafficking across the region and nationally is another priority. So far this year, Larkin said, WRPS has supported 56 victim/survivors, handled 67 victim quick response program applications and laid 121 charges through August.
Policing in the region costs $331 per capita, making it the fourth lowest costing police service nationally, even though the cost of policing in the region has risen significantly over the last three years. The highest total cost for policing was in Windsor at $487 per capita, followed by Thunder Bay ($477) and Greater Sudbury ($423).
Following last month’s meeting, the board asked staff to reconsider three of the five scenarios presented in the overall draft budget, including a status-quo 5.3 per cent year- over- year increase, hiring 25 new officers for a 6.3 per cent increase, and the addition of 35 staff at a 6.71 increase.
Board members agreed the latter scenario is the better option but were cautious on using vacancy gapping or reserve funds to meet the budget target since it’s essentially one-time use and will put pressure on future operating budgets unless efforts are made to find efficiencies elsewhere.
Regional chair Karen Redman asked if using $1 million from reserves could be considered instead.
Chief Bryan Larkin said various economic scenarios could be considered looking ahead to 2025.
A report on financial variances in this year’s budget also revealed a surplus of $3 million, driven predominantly through salary vacancies, said WRPS director of finance Kirsten Hand.
The number represents 1.8 per cent of the overall budget, and is larger than anticipated despite an 11 per cent loss in revenue from things like record checks and paid-duty service for events that didn’t happen because of the pandemic.
The proposed police budget will be presented to the region's administration and finance committee on Nov. 29 before it is tabled for regional council consideration next month.
