(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Budget 2021

P.A. police asking for $650,000 budget increase in 2021, plus money for four new officers

Jan 5, 2021 | 8:00 AM

The Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS) is asking for a $650,000 budget increase in 2021, plus $227,700 to hire four new officers.

Prince Albert City Council will vote on the police service budget on Wednesday, as part of 2021 budget deliberations.

The $649,490 requested would up the city’s annual spending on policing to $17.4 million. That represents a 3.9 per cent expansion over 2020 funding, after adjusting for the recent removal of bylaw enforcement from the police budget.

For taxpayers the increase translates to a two per cent mill rate tax increase.

Policing is the priciest item in the city’s annual operating budget, accounting for around a quarter of general fund spending.

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Salary increases, including 1.5 per cent under the current collective bargaining agreement, represent the biggest chunk of the proposed police budget increase.

In a new initiative this year, the police service also plans to contract a clinical psychologist who will create programs and provide counseling for staff dealing with post traumatic stress disorder. For 2021 the $100,330 position will be funded by a vacancy in another area of the department.

Asking for additional officers

The P.A. police currently have 100 sworn officers, with 23 funded by the province and the remainder paid for by the city.

In addition to its 2021 budget ask of $17.4 million, the police service is requesting money for four new officers.

The additional officers would cost $227,700 in 2021, increasing to $429,200 in 2022. The police’s budget submission did not qualify why the figure increases in the second year.

(Council Agenda Package/City of P.A.)

The department’s budget submission indicates Prince Albert has one police officer per 374 people — a significantly higher rate than the provincial average of one officer per 517 population. However, when it comes to the number of calls for service per member, PAPS officers respond to nearly double the provincial average.

“There has been little increase in front line resources in the past 40 years and calls for service have increased by almost 89 per cent,” the police service’s budget submission says, adding the city consistently places high on the crime severity index. “Additional sworn officers dedicated to front-line core policing functions would provide additional support to the demanding level of calls for service.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom