Saskatoon stands pat on police numbers

SASKATOON Acting Saskatoon police Chief Mark Chatterbok says he’s confident the force can deal with rising violent crime without seeking to add more officers for 2018.

Chatterbok presented the 2018 police budget at Thursday’s board of police commissioners meeting. The budget seeks an increase in spending than in 2017, even though no new patrol officers will be added for the first time since 2010.

The budget increase of 3.25 per cent this year, compared to 2.76 per cent in the 2017 budget, relates mainly to increased spending on salaries, he told the meeting.

A two-year trend of rising crime continues this year with violent crime up 1.2 per cent and property crime rising 8.2 per cent, he said.

“Some of the violent crime is more violent than in the past,” he added.

The increase sought for 2018 is $2.8 million, compared to $2.3 million for the 2017 budget.

The total proposed 2018 police budget, which must still be approved by city council, is $89.46 million.

Although policing remains the city’s top area of spending, it has declined as a percentage of total city spending, from 23.9 per cent in 2007 to 20.1 per cent in 2017, according to the police budget document. The city’s budget material, released this week, suggests policing accounts for 23 per cent of spending.

Material tabled at Thursday’s meeting shows police spending has risen from $54.86 million in 2007.

“Even though there’s no new officers this year, there’s a higher request than last year,” Mayor Charlie Clark said. “We aren’t adding officers and we know there’s demand for officers on the street. That’s the dilemma we have to sort out.”

In an interview, Chatterbok said the force will try to free up patrol officers through the use of a new telephone reporting system that goes into effect Jan. 1.

On Monday, the City of Saskatoon tabled its preliminary budget with a 4.96 per cent property tax increase. The city has been struggling to keep the property tax increase down after the March 22 provincial budget reduced revenues to municipalities.

“We were certainly aware of the budgetary situation the city is facing, that the whole province is facing, so we took that into consideration,” Chatterbok said.

Statistics presented at the meeting show the 8,942 crimes per 100,000 people — a decline compared to the 11,932 reported crimes per 100,000 people in 2007. The crime rate has been increasing slightly since 2013, however.

Charges for methamphetamine possession and trafficking have risen from fewer than 50 in 2012 to nearly 350 in 2016, police statistics show.

Meth-related home invasions have also spiked, to more than 450 in 2016.

Last year city police responded to nearly 80,000 calls, which have increased steadily since 2014. Police calls for mental health concerns have also been rising since 2013.

The police department is adding the equivalent of 2.5 new fulltime employees, both funded by the federal government, for victim services and an early intervention program for at-risk youth.