POLICE BUDGET DEBATE
A difference in police philosophies emerged this week as council debated the Regina Police Service’s $78-million spending plan and its request for eight new front-line officers. In the end, 11 positions were approved but none are considered “front line.”
We expect members to walk into high-risk situations and make immediate decisions with life-changing outcomes.
Negotiation over how much city money will be given to the Regina Police Service this year is said and done. But dialogue around the $78-million police budget has exposed a rift in thinking over how many police officers the city needs and what they’re worth.
When the dust settled over the budget this week, no outspoken parties got exactly what they wanted.
The Regina Police Service will grow by 11 positions, some police members and some civilians. However, the new officers are not considered “front line.” They’ll serve on specialized units, supplemented largely by provincial funding.
The force initially asked for eight new city-funded, front line officers. That number was whittled to zero in an effort to make the budget digestible by the time it went to a vote.
Police Chief Evan Bray says that leaves some gaps that need to be filled.
“Our police to population ratio, over the last decade, has changed fairly significantly,” he told reporters this week after city council passed the police budget.
At one time, there were around 190 officers for every 100,000 citizens. Now there are 178. Bray says the city’s growth has simply outpaced that of the force.
That said, he acknowledged hiring comes with a cost. And despite the denial of its additional staffing request, the force’s budget suffered public criticism.
Andrew Stevens, the only city councillor to vote against the 2018 police budget, says some residents took issue with the staffing costs included in the police budget, which is partly a reflection of the number of officers on the force and what they’re being paid.
Salary/benefit costs swelled by 4.7 per cent in this year’s police budget.
Many officers on the force are hauling in six-figure salaries. However, the pay scale for Regina police is set by a collective agreement. Bray isn’t apologetic about the money his officers are taking home.
“At the end of the day, you get incredible value,” he said, noting the same employee who can work with children in schools can be asked to assist someone suffering a mental health crisis or play the role of a social worker in a domestic conflict situation.
Further, they sometimes find themselves in harm’s way, he said, noting two officers were as- the United States.
In remuneration for its nearly 600 positions, both civilian and sworn, the force has dedicated 89.1 per cent of its budget.
Bray said part of the increase is required to pay for police time spent doing what “arguably isn’t police work to do.
“Being able to work with community partners and hand that work off to someone who’s better suited to do it, I think, is an important part of it, as well.”
In uttering that sentiment, the chief shared some ideological ground with Stevens, whose own concerns about the budget are related less to specifics than the city ’s overall spending strategy.
“Evan Bray has said repeatedly that a lot of what police are dispatched to take care of aren’t crimes in the traditional sense,” he said, making a point of noting his respect for the chief as a leader.
While there are clear criminal aspects of drug use and domestic abuse, he said underlying issues are often social problems.
“We should be investing money — a commensurate amount of money — every year in organizations like White Pony Lodge and other community-based organizations that deal with poverty and housing.”
“Things that get at the root causes of what the police are tasked with dealing with,” Andrews added.
And while the councillor claimed his down vote was symbolic of that notion, not an anti-police sentiment, he did question why police are “treated differently” when it comes to funding. Especially when he sees a need for civic spending in other areas.
“That’s a terrifying vision of a city, where we can say we’ll skimp on what makes this city worth living (in), but it’s a blank cheque for policing and that reactive approach to problems.”
While Bray sees community partnerships as important, he noted a distinct “difference in philosophy” between himself and those who feel police funding would be better spent elsewhere.
“You can take a third of our police budget and put it into that social justice work. That’s fine, but I guarantee you that our calls for service, right now, are not going down.”
Bray believes in the value of making social investments but predicts that it would take time before they paid dividends in the form of reduced police work. However, he added if future investments do cause a change in the number and nature of calls for service, “that means that perhaps we don’t need as many police officers dedicated in a certain area.”
While questions over how many police the city needs may linger, the question of just how much a police officer is worth will be one asked again in the near future. Potentially this spring, says Bray.
“Our contract expired at the end of 2017.”
While the collective bargaining process has not yet begun, when it does, a wage increase for officers may be negotiated.
“Our budget this year had to capture an estimate, a best guess, at what that could be,” he said.
The chief wouldn’t disclose any specific numbers, but said the estimated wage bump was included in the roughly $3.5-million increase to salary/benefit costs contained within the 2018 budget, which was approved by the board of police commissioners.
The same board will sit across the bargaining table from police. Force will increase by 11 new members, but none will be in ‘front line’ positions saulted the same night the budget was passed.
“We expect members to walk into high-risk situations and make immediate decisions with lifechanging outcomes.”
As officers gain experience, they advance in pay to rates Bray says are comparable to those paid to their colleagues in other forces “not only in Saskatchewan, but across Canada.”
To pay them less could result in corruption, he said, citing conversations he’s had with police from BRANDON HARDER