By Tyler Marr

Police to see 2018 bump in funding, less then desired

Nov 18, 2017 | 4:27 PM

City council has dug in their heels and hit the books, firing through the first few in-depth rounds of budget talks for 2018.

The first big-ticket item on agenda was the city’s police budget. This line item comes with a price tag of over  $16 million — 22 per cent of the city’s budget — but Police Chief Troy Cooper, citing inflation and salary’s, was asking for just north of a $543,000 funding bump for the upcoming fiscal year.

“The bulk of that increase is around just basic inflationary costs for policing, including salaries and other things that are impacted over time,” Cooper previously told paNOW. “We tried our best to hold the line.”

This money funds the city’s 94 officers, which is the third largest force in the province. Only one new position is to be added to the team this year through a provincially funded position inside the combined-forces unit.

Reinforcing his ask, Cooper showcased a number of staggering yet commonly known statistics surrounding crime in the city. He explained how the typical officer will respond to around 680 calls per year, compared to 398 per officer per year in Saskatoon. And with 2017 seeing a 6.6 per cent jump in requests for service, many of these developing into often-dangerous investigations or situations, this can eat heavily into the time and resources of officers.

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Prince Albert is also the third-ranked city in both crime severity and violent crimes, much of which is fuelled heavily by methamphetamine, according to Cooper, requiring highly trained officers as situations can be dangerous and quickly spiral out-of-control.

However, with an already tight budget, the half-a-million-dollar ask could not be met in full.

After Cooper fielded various questions on everything from rural crime to marijuana — something the Chief reiterates the city is not prepared for — council asked the department to find $200,000 more in savings, meaning the force will see just above a $300,000 bump for 2018.

But as the lion’s share of funding is directed toward salaries, this doesn’t leave much room for flexibility. Cooper said only around nine per cent of the overall budget can be rejigged before core services could suffer.

However, Coun. Dennis Nowoselsky, who also sits on the police commission board, wanted to slash and burn the police budget even further to help pay for other line items like additional rounds of sweeping.

“I think it has got to be cut. I say that strongly and I say that publicly. We can’t have that much money going into policing,” he said while taking issue with that fact at least 70 officers out to 94 take home salaries over $100,000.

“Those type of salaries, the public is saying to me, as one elected official… have got to stop. You have got to make a living but they are too high,” he added.

The topic of salaries and wages was discussed at an in-camera session earlier in the day which Nowoselsky failed to attend, drawing ire from many councillors who shook their heads and firmly disagreed with the comments.

During later budget talks when the topic was stumbled upon again by Nowoselsky, Coun. Evert Botha fired back saying, “I would like to know how these resident as are getting hold of my colleague.”

He made note how no one else or the city itself was receiving the volume of complaints Nowoselsky claimed to be hearing.

“I know, when our cell phones ring, we answer them,” Botha said. “I think if we are standing on their doorstep and asking residents ‘Don’t you think it is wrong that we are paying our bylaw officers these salaries?’ Yes, some of them are going to agree with you but I think you have got to support the police force that is there to protect us.”

This will be the second year in a row the force is being asked to revisit their ask. After an initial 2017 increase of $1.1 million, the organization was forced to make strategic staffing moves to cover clawbacks after the city was shorted over $2 million from the province this spring.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr