‘Unrealistic’ forecasts at collision reporting centres hurt budget
Collision reporting centres were supposed to provide the Ottawa Police Service with a rare source of revenue, but for the past four years they have only brought financial heartbreak to the force.
The reporting centres will have registered a combined $3.85-million budget shortfall since they opened in 2014.
The collision reporting centres were born from a service initiative designed to find operational and financial efficiencies.
The centres save patrol officers from responding to minor crashes and motorists don’t have to wait for an officer to arrive at the crash scene. Motorists can now take their vehicles to a reporting centre and police write the collision reports there.
Insurance companies buy the police reports when investigating claims.
In a 2012 report for the police services board, management wrote “the Ottawa taxpayer should not be subsidizing the cost of police response to motor vehicle collisions through their property taxes.”
However, the Ottawa taxpayer has helped backstop police budgets when they end a year in the red, partly because of the lack of expected funds coming in from the collision reporting centres.
The police force predicts the collision reporting centres will miss their revenue target by $1 million in 2017, contributing to a projected organization-wide deficit.
The collision reporting centres also missed its revenue target by $1 million in 2016, resulting in another police budget deficit.
The program missed the revenue target by $900,000 in 2015 and by $950,000 in 2014, but both police budgets ended with surpluses.
The OPS had huge expectations for selling collision reports after switching to e-reporting software in recent years.
In 2012, collision reports were projected to bring in $200,000.
The police force exceeded that target and, after upgrading the report-processing technology, increased the projection to $800,000 in 2013. That proved to be too optimistic, but the force did bring in $683,000 that year.
The Kanata collision reporting centre opened in July 2014, the downtown centre opened in October 2014 and the Orléans centre opened in December 2014.
The force thought it could make double the money by selling reports through the new reporting centres, so it increased the revenue forecast to $1.6 million in 2014.
Jeff Letourneau, the OPS chief financial officer, said the projections for reporting centres were overly aggressive.
“When I go back and look at the assumptions that were made to boost that revenue to $1.6 million, they look a little unrealistic in terms of sales rate,” said Letourneau, who only joined the OPS a couple of years ago.
The OPS reduced the revenue target by $200,000 for 2017. Management recommends knocking it down by another $200,000 in 2018, setting next year’s revenue forecast at roughly $1.2 million.
In fact, the OPS intends to keep rolling back the collision centre revenue projection by $200,000 each year through 2021.
Only about 15 per cent of collisions result in reports being sold by the collision reporting centres.
That’s a problem — the police force built the program on the assumption that 55 per cent of collisions would generate report sales.
It doesn’t help that the number of vehicles involved in crashes decreased by about 4,000 in 2016, compared to 2015. Letourneau said the OPS is seeing the trend continue in 2017.
Insurance companies are the biggest clients for the OPS collision reporting centres. If insurers aren’t buying reports, the police budget will take a hit.
One collision report costs $183.19, but that could jump to $187.61 if the police board and council approve the draft 2018 police budget. Insurance companies that sign up to an automated purchase program — there are 10 currently registered — receive a big discount on the report costs.
Pete Karageorgos, Ontario director of consumer and industry relations for Insurance Bureau of Canada, said insurance companies don’t require a police report for every collision.
Cameras are virtually in everyone’s pocket to take pictures of vehicle damage and the growing popularity of front-facing dashboard cameras makes it easier for insurance companies to know exactly what happened, Karageorgos said.
“In this day and age there’s technology that can help,” Karageorgos said. “You don’t need the collision report.”
Collision reporting centres have their limitations.
Karageorgos said having an officer attend a collision to make an unbiased report is better for insurance companies trying to combat insurance fraud.
But more police forces have moved toward the collision reporting centre model. At least one company has made a business off running them.
Accident Support Services International lists 30 Ontario communities where it operates, from Chatham-Kent to Thunder Bay.
The OPS runs its own collision reporting centres, and while police executives have considered contracting the work out, they’re concerned about losing the revenue.
Despite not meeting the revenue targets, Letourneau said collision reporting centres have been a success in Ottawa because they have increased revenue from report sales and saved time for patrol officers and motorists.
The OPS is aiming to provide a better service to insurance companies, which demand faster turnaround times for collision reports.
“One of the things we are trying to do is take a bit more of a sales approach with the insurance companies to ensure ... (our) product actually meets their needs and whether we can tweak it a little bit without adding any cost or work on our side on an ongoing basis and have them more interested in buying reports,” Letourneau said.
“We’re not throwing the towel in completely.”