Toronto police board approves $20M budget increase for 2024

The Toronto Police Services Board has voted unanimously in favour of a 1.7 per cent increase in the police'snet operating budget next year to bring their funding to nearly $1.2 billion an increase of $20 million from the 2023 budget.

In a Dec. 11 report to the board, police said the budget increase would allow them to hire about 300 new uniformed officers by the end of the year to help improve 911 response times and hire about 100 new staff to fill civilian roles.

Chief Myron Demkiw said the budget committee received feedback from the community, leading them to requestthe increase.

"We know that for us to continue to meet the unique challenges and needs of this great city, we need to continue to adapt, improve efficiencies and in a meaningful and thoughtful way, deliver on our promise to keep Toronto the best and safest place to live, work and play," the chief told the board in his remarks.

Demkiw said the service needs more money because of an increase in emergency calls, reported hate crimes, violent carjackings and population increases.

Dozens of deputants argued for and against a budget increase.

Toronto Police Association president Jon Reid told the board that officers can't keep up with an 18 per cent increase in 911 calls in the last year.

"Terrifyingly,it's taking us an average of 22 minutes to respond to the highest priority calls," he said."Sixty per cent of the time, there are no units available to respond to an emergency.

"Imagine having to wait 22 minutes for someone to show up. This is today's reality in Toronto. It isn't fair for the citizens of our city," he continued.

The Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, however, says police could save money by diverting more calls involving people in crisis to specialized care centres.

"It will save a lot of police officers and people will get much much better service for much less money," said former Toronto mayor and a coordinator of the coalition,John Sewell.

Sewell said community agencies are also better equipped than police torespond to people facing homelessness or drug addiction.

The 2024 police budget has not received the stamp of approval yet. It still needs to be reviewed by the city's budget committee in the new year.