Police spending major issue in upcoming budget talks

Every year the number of men and women in blue uniforms policing the streets rises, and every year the police department becomes more expensive.

The city can't afford to keep paying for that growth, says Mayor Don Iveson.

"This is no longer sustainable for us," he said of the police commission's latest request for new staff members.

The police requested the equivalent of 351.3 new full-time staff positions over three years, to keep up with the demands of the growing city.

The new positions include front-line officers, investigators and support staff.

Only 102 of those positions are currently funded in the city's three-year operating budget.

To fund the department's other requests for staff and other resources, the city would have to spend another $48.6 million over the next three years.

Council has $10 million in discretionary funds to put toward unfunded requests for the 2016 budget. That's not enough to cover the police request, even if council didn't spend more on anything else.

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Coun. Michael Oshry said the police department is the biggest draw on municipal tax dollars, and the city can't afford to give them more without raising the tax increase.

"There's a lot of asks coming this way and it's going to be unlikely that we're going to be able to afford to give them everything that they want," Oshry said.

Police commission chair Shami Sandhu said the staff and resources are needed to keep up with population growth and a rise in violent crime.

"Our eight major crime indexes are up almost 17 per cent," Sandhu said.

He said without new hires, the city could see more serious crimes with fewer officers per capita available to handle them.

"This just isn't working"

Iveson said provincial help is needed if Edmonton is to staff enough police officers to handle the city's crime.

He said to give the police what they've asked for would be to accept the status quo, and surrender to the burden being placed on the city.

He pointed to a number of provincial issues that are downloaded onto city police, such as mental illness problemsand homelessness, which drive up municipal property taxes.

"This just isn't working," he said.

The mayor wants to see more money go toward preventative crime initiatives.

The community organization REACH Edmonton hopes its crisis line program fits the bill. The group is asking for $500,000 to dispatch outreach workers to vulnerable people in need that would usually tie up expensive police and emergency service resource.

"We're hopeful that the work that we're doing and asking council to invest in is preventative in nature and can actually help them save money down the road," said executive director Jan Fox.

Sandhu said he agrees with the mayor's ideas, but said he hopes police are adequately funded in the meantime.

"I'd hate to see our council do something just to make a point to the province, to the detriment of public safety," Sandhu said.

The Edmonton Police Commission will make a presentation to council on Nov. 27 before councillors begin budget deliberations.