The number of additional officers Waterloo Regional Police Service says it needs to hire to meet the rapidly growing region's current and future needs was one of the main issues discussed at Wednesday's police services board meeting.
Staffing levels are at the forefront of the draft 2023 operating and capital budget, which came back to the table with two additional hiring scenarios for the board to consider.
Based on staffing levels from 2021, WRPS had 127 officers per 100,000 people in Waterloo Region, the lowest rate reported in over 20 years.
“This is the lowest rate that we have seen since 2003 where we had 129.9 officers for 100,000 citizens,” said WRPS chief, Mark Crowell.
“We are currently falling below the national and provincial rates for officer per population ratio.”
The police service presented four options to the board which would all impact the budget differently.
One option is to stay at the current level of service which still comes with a 7.19 per cent budget increase, worth just over $14 million and resulting in a 5.52 per cent increase in property taxes.
The status-quo scenario would push the force's operating budget to just under $210 million.
Hiring eight additional full time officers results in an 8.1 per cent increase worth about $16 million, and a 5.99 per cent tax increase.
Hiring 11 or 19 new officers results in tax increases of 6.32 per cent and 7.21 per cent respectively.
The gold plated option to add 55 full time sworn officers would meet the average rate of other major forces in Ontario.
This would cost an extra $26.2 million resulting in an 11.37 per cent increase in property taxes.
Crowell said hiring the additional 35 additional officers approved last year, is challenging, so the aim is to spread out the number of hirings over several years.
“In providing adequate service to the community, our goal is to see the addition of 19 officers. We are still striving to meet the strength authorized last year, but we are also looking at this as a multi year plan to try to meet the needs and growth in the region,” Crowell said.
“The growth of about 19 officers over the next three years would help bridge the gap.”
The increased need for more officers, is a result of increased growth and crime rates in the region.
“We’ve experienced, in the past three years, an increase in Waterloo Region, mostly driven by crimes such as break and enters, and thefts over $5,000” Crowell said.
“The region has also seen an increase in violent crime including homicides, sexual assaults, and robberies.”
There has been a significant rise in crimes involving weapons.
“We’ve seen incidents of stabbings and weapons offences that continue to be of concern for us and the community. We also continue to see impaired driving charges escalating, despite our efforts in education and enforcement. This remains a sustained issue in the region and on our roadways,” Crowell said.
As for robberies, WRPS experienced a dramatic increase in 2022 than in 2021.
"Pharmacy robberies almost doubled within the region as well as person on person robberies over last year. The total robberies, year to date, are almost up 41 per cent versus this same time last year," Crowell said.
According to Statistics Canada, firearms related offences, in total, have decreased by about 5 per cent nationally.
“But in the region, in our census metropolitan area of Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo, we’ve seen a 24.2 per cent increase in offences involving firearms,” Crowell said.
“Each one of these numbers represents a crime scene, an interaction between individuals that is violent, involves victims and victimization, witnesses and impacts neighbourhoods, families, and individuals as well as our officers. This impacts the fabric of our society and our community.”
Crowell said that all of the statistics speak to needs that have not been met in terms of crime response as WRPS look forward to elaborating on all scenarios further.
“Our current model of response is mainly a 'reactive' response model. As a community, sometimes we are thriving in meeting our investigative and frontline needs, but at times we are behind the eight ball in keeping up with the pace of growth and crime activity,” Crowell said.
“We look forward to elaborating on some of these impacts for Waterloo Region.”
This was a first draft proposed at the board meeting, Wednesday. WRPS will consider comments presented and return with options for the board to explore in the new year.
