By Taylor MacPherson

Budget reduction won’t affect service: Police Chief

Nov 21, 2017 | 4:00 PM

Despite receiving less funding than requested from the city, Police Chief Troy Cooper said front-line services will not be affected in 2018.

The Prince Albert Police Service initially asked the city to boost their funding by $543,000 over 2017’s budget, a fairly modest increase which Cooper said was intended to keep up with inflation. During budget deliberations over the weekend the city asked the police service to find an additional $200,000 in savings, meaning the department will only see an increase of roughly a quarter-million dollars.

Even though the police are feeling pressure to pinch pennies, Cooper said front-line services and the number of working officers will not be affected by the challenging budget.

“We’re certainly not going to reduce strength,” Cooper told paNOW. “With the call volume and the workload that are on our staff now, that’s not an option. We’ll find savings in other areas.”

The police service may need to rely on partner agencies or other city departments to help them find the savings, Cooper said. Additional external funding will depend on the provincial budget and other factors which are not yet known. The police are already looking for areas to trim down and may not have a clear picture of their financial situation until early next year.

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While six-figure police salaries came under criticism from city councillor Dennis Nowoselsky during budget deliberations, Cooper said Prince Albert police are paid “a professional salary” which is comparable to police officers in other municipal departments around the province. Cooper noted the high volume of calls fielded by Prince Albert’s officers, and said the cost of policing is driven by the number of officers more than their individual compensation.

“I understand where there could be some frustrations in a tight budget year, when you look at police salaries,” Cooper said. “The cost of policing is not driven by annual salaries of police officers in this city. The cost of policing is driven by the number of police officers that we have.”

This is the second consecutive year the city police have been asked to look for savings. The department was initially granted a $1.1 million increase for 2017, but after a shortfall from the province the city was forced to claw back $200,000. The department was able to find the savings through strategic staffing and by leaving vacancies open, Cooper said, and that may need to happen again in 2018.

“We’re very early in the process right now,” he said. “We’ll be going to our board next week and discussing some of those recommendations.”

Taylor.macpherson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TMacPhersonNews

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 3:55 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2017 to clarify the source of criticisms of police salaries.