The Halton Regional Police Service is requesting a 5.7% increase in its budget for the coming year. That would bring the 2023 budget to $186 million compared to $176 million in 2022. The Police Service Board, which is the civilian group that governs the police, approved the budget request at its December meeting. It now goes on to Regional Council in January for final approval. The Region of Halton provides the money.
The proposed increase is higher than the 4.7% budget guideline originally set by the region.
Police Chief Stephen Tanner told the board that the additional funds are required to combat the growing trend in cybercrime and to respond to the escalating cost of the new police station in Milton that will now cost two-and-a-half times what was originally expected.
The chief said that many crimes such as money laundering, human trafficking, and child exploitation involve cyberspace and “is an area we know we’re behind on.” With the budget increase, one additional staff member could be assigned to cyber investigations. “We merge these people together to make sure that we can deal with technology and that we can deal with all the things that are happening on the dark web, cybersecurity, in the sense of attacks. We have to stay on top of these.”
The budget proposal includes funding for twenty more officers and six additional civilian staff. “This is what we absolutely need, as opposed to what we would like,” said the chief.
“If we don’t hire more people, it’s going to be more work on the ones that are here, who are already saying, feeling and perceiving that they are overworked and don’t have enough resources at the front line…and I don’t necessarily disagree.”
The chief reminded the board that the population of Halton is growing and that increased population means increased crime.
As an example of increased crime, Tanner reported that while there were 850 cars stolen in Halton in 2021, that number rose to over 1,200 in 2022. Then, there’s the endless concern about traffic. Tanner said that his department has a full-time traffic unit, which is very busy and that he could double the staff there and still not keep up with the traffic-related problems in Halton. He strongly recommended greater use of photo-radar.
“Municipalities should be investing in photo-radar. They should be investing in more technology when it comes to redlight cameras, first and foremost for traffic safety and hopefully to remove police from doing as much enforcement.”
While the Police Services Board agreed to send the budget with its 5.7% increase on to Regional Council, some members were concerned about the lack of detail.
“The issue really is demonstrating to the taxpayer the value proposition for the additional taxes…if you have 20 new officers can you demonstrate that you can respond more rapidly to a call. …If we invest this much more in cyber security, what is the likelihood of reducing cyber incidents? These sort of metrics would be very valuable for the public to understand the value. We need that information because we need to be able to, not just trust, but to verify,” concluded Board Chair Jeff Knoll.
In the end, the board asked for more information prior to its presentation to Regional Council.
