Police board approves budget, move to hire civilians
Hiring seven civilians to do some police legwork — such as picking up digital evidence and video surveillance footage of a crime — is freeing up six regular police officers to return to front line work, says Hamilton police Chief Eric Girt.
The move is one of the components of the $161.2-million 2018 operating budget presented to and later approved by the Hamilton Police Board on Thursday.
“It frees up officers for higher priority calls,” said Girt while presenting the budget, which represents a 2.45 per cent increase over the 2017 budget.
The seven — six “scene of crime special constables” for the forensics unit, and another civilian special constable for the tech crime unit — make up a chunk of the nine new hires in the budget.
The special constables will also do such work as processing reports on break and enters that are not in process — such as calls about a break-in that occurred when a homeowner was away — and other nonemergency calls for service, Girt explained.
Proposed provincial legislation, called the Safer Ontario Act, allows for civilians or special constables to take on more duties such as these.
The other two hires will be regular officers — a detective constable to be added to digital evidence and cyber crime work in the tech crime unit, and another detective constable for the sexual assault unit. The two units have seen large increases in work in recent years, Girt said.
Total salary and benefits for these positions amount to $921,840.
In presenting the budget, Girt first spoke about how the police service is fairing now in such areas as dealing with cases involving mental health and addictions, in dealing with changing demographics to a more aging population, and providing adequate and effective service.
Strides are being made in each, but challenges continue, he said.
Work required on important digital evidence, for example, has become “a tidal wave, and it’ll continue to grow,” Girt said.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger — a police board member — called the budget “sensible” and “reasonable”. He and others praised the hiring of civilians, where possible, to free up officers for front line work on the streets.
The budget now goes to city council for approval.