Calgary Police Defend Request for Additional Personnel Budget – Calgary | The Canadian News

A boost to the Calgary police budget seems likely following a city council vote.

If the entire budget is approved, the Calgary Police Service will receive $ 6.1 million in addition to its $ 401 million, which will be used for additional positions.

Tuesday afternoon’s vote passed 11-4, with Council Members Carra, Penner and Walcott, and Mayor Gondek in opposition.

For three hours, members of the Calgary Police Service and the Police Commission answered questions about his application.

During the presentation to the city council, Calgary Police Commission Acting Chairman Shawn Cornett said the CPS is applying for 60 percent of the positions that were originally proposed in the 2021 budget, but were eliminated. due to city budget concerns.

She said CPS faces increased pressure from areas such as an anticipated spike in crime to pre-pandemic levels next year, increased complexity of investigations and the process due to legislative changes, lawsuits to address systemic racism, an increase in protests and demonstrations, and a low level of documented police. moral.

CPS chief Mark Neufeld said the combination of the effects of the pandemic and increased demand for surveillance is unprecedented.

“It’s like nothing I’ve seen in 30 years of surveillance,” Neufeld said, adding that police in other major cities face similar challenges.

Neufeld said that of the 38 positions the budget addition would bring, 13 would be sworn officers and 25 would be civilian members.

The CPS chief said that despite being “in the middle of the pack” in terms of crime rates, Calgary has one of the lowest officer-to-citizen ratios among Canadian cities.

“Even though we have one of the lowest police-to-population ratios, I think that really shows that we are a very safe city and that the number of officers on the street is not always in direct correlation with safety.” Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said.

Neufeld said the additional posts would allow the CPS to direct more personnel to front-line policing. He also said that some 275 members are currently on leave, putting pressure on staffing levels and increasing overtime.

“The challenge we currently have due to our front-line staffing levels is that we are basically relegated to being much more reactive,” he said.

Neufeld said the non-juried members will be needed to help modernize CPS human resource practices and support front-line officers. He added that incorporating trained civilian professionals into the police service also helps reduce internal turnover.

“The immediate thing for me, and the employee engagement survey brought me home, was being able to get this HR reform job to the finish line,” he said. “This is critical to our people and it comes up over and over again.”

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott challenged the idea that the police budget should increase given investments in alternative call response models in recent years, investments designed to reduce the burden of calling the police.

When the councilman asked if the funding increases should wait until the results are confirmed, Neufeld said the city’s crime profile has changed since the beginning of the economic recession the city is in.

Are the interventions working? I think it is a complicated question, because society continues to develop, ”said the head of CPS. “I think things are quite critical at the moment.”

“It is a challenging standard to suggest that as circumstances change, we can no longer take responsibility for the plans we made in previous years just because of the changing dynamics of our society,” Walcott responded.

The District 8 representative who was just appointed to the Calgary Police Commission added that when looking at the city’s budget as a whole along with the causes of crime, the city has a role to play in helping to lighten the burden of police work through longer-term social service initiatives.

“If we are really going to be partners in this, we have to pay close attention to what we are doing to support people in need,” Walcott said.

The police presentation was part of a week-long budget adjustment process to 2022 by the city council, and a final decision from the rookie council is expected in the coming days.