Call to redirect police surpluses shot down
Coun. Nrinder Nann says new policy was ‘important first step’ in change, but colleagues reject argument
A pitch to redirect Hamilton police budget surpluses to a new city reserve fund that would support services that address poverty, health and housing has been shot down in a lopsided council vote.
City politicians rejected Coun. Nrinder Nann’s call for such a policy by an 11-2 margin during municipal budget deliberations Thursday.
The vote came after Mayor Fred Eisenberger and councillors approved a police budget hike of just under three per cent for a total net spending plan in 2021 of $176.6 million.
Nann set the stage for a new policy by describing the hardship of Hamilton residents hit hard by a toxic drug supply, mental health crises and housing instability — made all the more dire by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Taken together, we have the perfect storm of underemployment, unaffordability and critical lack of sustainable social supports.”
But police aren’t “best equipped” to respond to this and have “other pressing core” duties, she said. “It’s an incredibly expensive, inefficient and even dangerous model.”
Nann called for a new community resilience reserve fed by police budget surpluses. “It’s an important first step to correct what’s been underfunded for too long.”
In June, she and Coun. Maureen Wilson, who seconded her motion, endorsed local calls from the community for police reform following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Since then, rallies have been held advocating for the defunding of police and more action on homelessness.
In an email, police spokesperson Jackie Penman noted police are still crunching the numbers but expect a 2020 surplus that will be “within one per cent” of the total budget.
During Thursday’s session, Coun. Chad Collins, who acknowledged his sister is a Hamilton police member, said a city policy to handle police surpluses has existed since 2015.
Like other boards and agencies, such as the library and farmers’ market, it allows police to reinvest favourable variances into reserves for capital projects, Collins said.
If police couldn’t bank surpluses, they’d end up before council asking for city levy dollars to fund purchases like vehicles and computers, which “makes no financial sense,” he argued.
“I get the politics of trying to pit one organization against the other, or even continue to go after the police.”
Eisenberger, who’s chair of the police board, picked up where Collins left off.
“This is really an attempt to realign someone’s belief that police services are funded inappropriately.”
Eisenberger pointed to ways police collaborate with other services, including paramedics and mental health workers, through specialized teams that respond to people in crisis.
He also referred to an ongoing effort to create a community safety and well-being plan, a provincially mandated exercise that involves several partners, including police, health services and school boards.
“We’re not going to walk away from our current responsibilities until such time as there are some alternatives in place.”
Wilson said she took “great exception” to suggestions her stance was a “display” motivated by politics.
“We do not have a policing crisis in Hamilton,” she added. “We have a mental health crisis; we have a have a hunger crisis; we have an opioid crisis.”
Likewise, Nann lamented “really just cheap” remarks. “Oldschool politics, I’m sorry, they’re irrelevant on this issue now.”