POLICE TALK BUDGET CUT
Service proposes forgoing $10M increase
Police funding dominated the third day of city council's budget talks, but questions remain about possibly reallocating some of the Calgary Police Service money.
CPS has proposed forgoing an expected $10-million budget increase in 2021 as part of the “belt-tightening” across city departments. City budget changes for 2021 include a total of $90 million in cuts to give most homeowners a slight property tax decrease.
On top of doing away with their budget growth, CPS and the police commission say they would put an additional $8 million toward “alternative call response models,” with $2 million also set aside for internal work to review the results.
CPS Chief Mark Neufeld said Wednesday that it's the “most positive part” of the budget submission. He told council he doesn't support an “arbitrary” reduction of the police budget without a direct link to reducing demand on front-line officers, but he also sees opportunities to find new possibilities for crisis response.
“We've heard loud and clear from various advocacy groups, as well as our own members, that we're attending to issues that are not necessarily police-related,” he said.
He added that an important requirement of shifting that money is making sure it translates into reduced call volumes for officers.
But council appears divided on the way forward, with a series of amendments still up for discussion Thursday.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the crux of the debate is likely to be whether the city should be involved in the reallocation process, or if CPS will be left to do it.
City officials on Wednesday presented details of a community safety investment framework, which would direct money to organizations that can offer alternative crisis response. The framework involves the city, partner agencies and CPS, but would ultimately put responsibility for distributing reallocated funds in the city's hands.
The mayor said that, ultimately, CPS and the commission can opt to pursue the reallocation they've proposed regardless of what council says.
“The question is, do you want some more visibility and some more governance over it.”
Coun. Diane Colley-urquhart said the work police do isn't well understood in the community, pointing out various partnerships they already have with community groups. She's proposing that CPS keep the $8 million they've said they would reallocate, letting the force craft their own strategy for different kinds of crisis response.
Coun. Sean Chu repeated that he sees the city pursuing a “misguided ideology” with possible reductions or reallocations of the police budget.
“This is the time even more so that we need to give Calgarians the certainty of safety and law and order, that we support our police,” he said.
Chu also asked Neufeld whether he ever felt “pressure” from city councillors to defund the police. The chief said no.
Council sets the overall budget for the police service, but doesn't have the ability to direct how the money is used.
“It may well be that (Thursday) some members of council will just say, `No, use that $8 million for front-line policing,'” Nenshi said.
“Here's the thing: We don't have the right to tell the police commission that. It's up to them how they spend their budget.”
Neufeld said CPS data shows police deal with an average of 24 calls per day to execute a mental-health warrant or help someone who's suicidal. And they receive 268 calls every day related to community safety concerns — often involving homeless people sleeping in stairwells or business lobbies, or about “erratic behaviour” related to mental illness or addiction.
Neufeld repeated Wednesday that police have become the default agency to respond to these situations, even though they might not be best suited for the job.
“These situations may not be criminal, but they pose real and perceived concerns for people's safety and well-being, and they call police to respond and assist.”
Next year's police budget, as currently proposed, amounts to a net $18-million reduction, including a $20-million “absorption” of Covid-related effects.
Without the planned $10-million budget increase for 2021, CPS won't be able to hire 60 new officers, but Neufeld said COVID has slowed down recruitment anyway. He said that process should be able to ramp up quickly after the pandemic eases.
We're attending to issues that are not necessarily police-related