Council told six more officers needed on Victoria force

Victoria Police Chief Del Manak hopes to boost his department’s ranks by adding six officers and two civilian staff next year.

“There’s been an increase in population. There’s an increase in complexity [of cases],” Manak told councillors during a budget workshop.

“The illicit overdose crisis that we’re dealing with is epidemic. We’re seeing yet another increase in our region. Last year, we were the third largest [number of overdoses] in B.C. next to Surrey and Vancouver. I mean, that’s astounding, that Victoria, given our population, was third highest.”

These additional officers and civilian staff would add $870,000 to the departmental budget. Victoria’s share would be $742,110, with Esquimalt picking up the balance. Victoria police, funded 85.3 per cent by Victoria and 14.7 per cent by Esquimalt, has 243 sworn members and just over 100 civilians with an annual budget in 2017 of $52.4 million.

Manak is proposing to add $2.5 million to the budget — a 4.76 increase — to fund a variety of items including: the six additional officers and two civilian staff; salary and benefit increases of $922,332; $76,800 in overtime costs; $160,000 in additional funding for policing special events; and $143,668 for an intelligence unit.

The police department has not had an increase in its complement in six or seven years, he said.

Two of the new officers are required simply to maintain service levels in the face of expected growth in 2018 and the remaining four “represent minimum increases required to provide adequate front-line policing for growth that has already occurred and where human resources gaps have been identified,” Manak said in a report to council.

Studies have shown falling crime rates have little or no impact on calls for service, he said.

“Police are actually responding to more calls in nontraditional roles. . . and that has been where policing has really taken off.”

Manak said the landmark 2016 Supreme Court ruling known as the Jordan decision regarding unreasonable court delays has added extra pressure to policing.

Under the new framework, unreasonable delay is to be presumed if proceedings top 18 months in provincial court or 30 months in superior court.

The decision has resulted in the need for greater disclosure of information before the Crown approves charges and that means more work is required in the initial stages of a file, he said.