Halton police board passes $155.4-million budget
BURLINGTON — The Halton Regional Police Services Board has voted to approve a 2019 budget of $155.4 million for the police service.
The budget, which must still be approved by regional council, is $5.3 million larger than the 2018 police operating budget and within the Halton Region’s guideline of an increase restricted to 3.5 per cent.
Halton Police Chief Stephen Tanner noted the priorities of this budget are to:
• Maximize deployment of new officers to front-line duties;
• Upgrade/replace front-line technology tools;
• Research/implement efficient digital storage;
• Deploy the separate LTE wireless network for first responders;
• Finish normalizing operations at the new police headquarters;
• Plan for the consolidation of Milton/Halton Hills facilities in a new station.
To achieve these goals, the budget calls for the hiring of 14 new police officers including 12 front-line patrol officers and two supervisors for the forensic identification unit.
“We are feeling some pressures because of growth at the front line,” said Tanner.
Some of the other budget drivers include $1.2 million for the LTE project, which will include the acquisition, configuration and implementation of LEX/ Motorola hand-held communications devices plus three additional LTE transmitter sites.
The LTE project will allow Halton police to become the first police service in Canada to adopt an independent wireless network dedicated to public safety.
Another $1.3 million will be spent for vehicle replacements, while $153,000 will pay for network server replacements, $362,000 will cover technology replacements (including $150,000 for a call manager upgrade for the 911 call centre), and $450,000 will fund the acquisition, construction of a new tactical response vehicle.
Oakville Mayor and Halton police board chair Rob Burton said the best news in the budget relates to the $20.5 million being allocated for the consolidation of the Milton and Halton Hills police stations into a single facility in Milton.
“Everyone I know up there is anxious about us getting that done,” said Burton.
“It should be well-received.” The new consolidated station, which is expected to be up and running for 2020-21, will be supported by smaller stations in Halton Hills and Acton to ensure a continued physical presence in each community.
To that end, $100,000 will be used for renovations to the existing Halton Hills police station to close off the majority of the building and provide up-to-date spaces for the minimal physical footprint required in the building.
The majority of budget expenses can be found in the area of compensation, $140.1 million, which also includes $4.7 million of the $5.3 million increase requested for 2019.
Data from 2017 presented in the budget documents shows Halton police continuing to outshine various police services, including those in Windsor, Sudbury, London, Waterloo, Hamilton, Toronto, Niagara, Ottawa, Peel, Durham and York in a number of areas.
This data showed Halton to have the lowest overall crime rate (per 100,000 population) among these communities and the lowest overall crime severity index at 27.9.
Windsor had the highest index at 95.
Halton police also had the highest weighted clearance rate of 51.7 per cent, and the best staffper-population ratio of 170 per 100,000.
Cost per capita was also listed as best among the other police services at $254.