Delegating to the Police Services Board

On the need to fund more 'upstream services'

On October 28th, the Waterloo Region Police Services Board held the second of two feedback sessions. Feedback largely focused on the police budget with the board passing an operating budget of $253 million at its October 16th meeting. That works out to an almost $24 million increase (10.84%) from 2024, meaning the average resident would pay ~$850 for the police portion of the property tax bill.

The police budget still needs final approval from Regional Council which happen as part of the larger regional budget process, later this year. There are two public input sessions on the regional budget on November 6th and 27th.

Six people were scheduled to delegate (one individual had tech issues and was unable to join). A brief summary of those delegations follows, as well as the notes from my delegation. Click to watch the meeting.

The agenda includes two written submissions, which you can view here.

Rob Deutschmann: Regional Councillor Deutschmann "reiterated his position from the first public input meeting in September, asking police services to defer the hiring of 18 new officers in 2025 to save more than $4 million.” Deutschmann also stated that “the recent shift from quarterly to annual personnel reporting raises concerns,” by limiting transparency and impacting Regional Council’s ability to make informed and timely decisions. He made several recommendations to the board, including:

• Defer adding 18 additional officers to the authorized complement for 2025

• Reinstate quarterly personnel reporting for transparency

• Review civilian hiring practices based on actual needs

• Expand crisis call diversion program to operate across the Region

Darren Rene representing KW Habilitation: Rene highlighted two issues: a mismatch between the need for, and availability of, accessibility and inclusion supports; and, the pending pressure point as people with intellectual disabilities age in their community with limited supports available. Rene wants these issues to be dealt with proactively and believes that KW Habilitation could assist in meeting gaps by providing cross-training, ensuring Vulnerable Sector checks are accurate, and engagement with community officers.

Jason Spencer representing Community Justice Initiatives (CJI): Spencer requested funding for CJI’s Community Mediation Services to bolster staff capacity for increased and consistent referrals. Spencer argued that such funding would support community-led responses to crime and conflict, freeing up WRPS officers to other policing duties.

Daniel Teng with the Canadian Aweil Youth Association was unable to join due to technical issues.

Harald Drewitz with Kitchener's Tax Watch Group: Drewitz is concerned with the ever-increasing police budget and the ability for taxpayers to keep up with escalating costs. “It didn't hit us in 2024 but at some point in time, it's going to hit us and hit us hard," said Drewitz.

Melissa Bowman: I was the last to speak and argued that, given there is no clear and consistent relationship between increasing police spending and reducing crime rates, that we need a new model of community safety, one that prioritizes prevention and care over reactive policing. My full comments are listed below. They differ slightly from my delegation as the following was too long for the five-minute time limit.

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Introduction

Budget season is a time to consider how to best keep our communities safe. However, too often when questions are asked about the police budget, or the potential for alternative models, it is assumed to be an attack on our local police force. Last year Councillor Craig said that he wasn’t “happy about comments about defunding the police as that’s an attack on the morale of the police." It’s unfortunate that what could be an opportunity for real discussion about community safety is blocked by such criticism.

We saw similar criticism last year when one regional councillor referred to “another difficult budget year” with the region needing money for “homelessness, drug addiction and mental health services.” The councillor suggested diverting a percentage of the police budget surplus to address some of those issues. However, "Chief Crowell said taking police reserve money is a move to ‘defund’ the police.” These funds were not from the core budget but rather from the police surplus, which has averaged over $3 million per year in recent years.

Police don’t prevent crime

We need a new model of community safety is that there is no consistent correlation between police spending and crime rates in Canada. Contrary to what we hear at every police budget presentation, a paper recently published in Canadian Public Policy found “no clear relationship between higher police budgets and crime, and no association between increasing spending and reducing crime rates. This, even as spending on policing increased steadily over the study period.”

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an associate professor in Sociology at the University of Toronto stated, “We need to be thoughtful and considerate when we hear these calls for increased police funding as a means of trying to directly affect or reduce the crime rate. Simply giving the police more money is not going to solve the issues we see. The findings of the report reinforce the need to further investigate or explore the role and function of police in our society. We need a much better understanding of exactly how the police are spending the resources that are allocated to them.”

Prevention, not reaction

Still, police board members strive to make the case that ever-increasing police budgets result in safer communities. Last year, board member Ian McLean said, “There’s no doubt that we need the increase in our uniformed complement because of calls for service, growing community, complexity of crime, crime severity.” McLean completely overlooked the value of investing in prevention and root causes of crime.  

Money well spent?

While much of the police budget is committed to salaries and benefits, there are clearly some items that rightly have been called into question such as continuing to pay for officers that have yet to be hired, resulting in police budget surpluses. I agree with Councillor Deutschmann’s recommendation that Waterloo Regional police should not budget to hire even more officers, until the service is able to hire the officers it has already budgeted for.

If we step back and look at the Regional budget as a whole, we see that so much of it is dedicated to policing. This seems backwards. Given that police largely react to, as opposed to preventing, crime, it seems to me that we would be far better off first relying on investing deeply in preventative and supportive services. 

PSB asking tough questions?

Residents are often told that the Police Board ensures accountability on these issues. Last year, Regional Chair Redman said, “We ask the hard questions and we are accountable.” Yet time and again, few questions are asked of the Police Chief following presentations to the board. 

At one meeting last year, staff shared a graph showing that 'Persons in Crisis' are the second highest category for 'Use of Force' incidents, and yet, not a single question from the board as to why that might be. In 2021, Regional Council passed a motion to invest in community-led, police-free approaches. When the ‘police-free’ language was later removed without explanation, there was no follow up from the board.

Alternative models/upstream options

Yet, police-free models exist elsewhere that we can look to as examples. Addressing the root causes of crime is an important starting point for many of those approaches.

According to Public Safety Canada, protective factors “are positive influences that can improve the lives of individuals or the safety of a community. These may decrease the likelihood that individuals engage in crime or become victims. Building on existing protective factors makes individuals and communities stronger and better able to counteract risk factors.” Protective factors include: Good mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health, strong social supports, healthy prenatal and early childhood development, steady employment, and stable housing, some of the very areas that Regional Council is considering deferring funding, ‘defunding’ one might say, in this budget cycle.

The Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council, which the Region shut down in 2022 after 28 years of service, states that, “Although it seems contradictory, a violence prevention plan cannot focus on violence. Instead it must focus on human and social development.” However, given policing takes up 32% of the Region’s budget, it seems we are very much focusing on the former.

As community advocate Ann Marie Beals stated in her 2023 delegation to Regional Council, "You want less crime in the region? Then instead of increasing an already bloated police budget, invest the money in housing, health care, education, and land back, providing opportunities for the rights of all community members.”

An open letter from the ACB Network reiterates that approach, arguing, “instead of investing in surveillance and punishment, we should invest in community-led care and safety, opportunities for everyone, and programs that provide people with enough money to live on.” The letter highlights the following statement by Josie Duffy Rice, a youth activist, "The safest communities are the most resourced communities. Safety is housing, food security, access to healthcare, a living wage, public education—dignity-affirming services."

Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice and then-Kitchener Centre MPP Laura Mae Lindo also penned a letter stating that, “It is clear that protecting Black, Indigenous and racialized lives urgently requires an unprecedented and historic shift in the way we view policing and the health and safety of our communities.”

Not either/or?

But do we need to pick one approach or the other? Last year Regional Chair Redman said, "It’s not either/or. It’s not fund the police OR invest in upstream services. It’s both/and." Then, now is the time to act and put these words into action by investing deeply into prevention and care supports.

In fact, one advocate of this approach is none other than Chief Crowell who stated, “We’re all looking toward a day when we can move away from reactive and responsive modes, when we have a wide range of community solutions that are potentially police-free.”

Although, I question if upstream services are truly a priority for this board as the Chief also stated, “Any motion that seeks to reallocate or defund the service’s use of surplus funds without a sound analysis of service-level impacts will have a destabilizing effect on service.” Councillor Craig also said he’s “not prepared to compromise the police budget for other issues like upstream things.” 

Conclusion

At a third of the Regional budget, we are spending too much on policing, which is reactive. We need to recognize that we can’t police our way out of every problem. Our regional budget should reflect that.

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Related Citified posts:

• Police Budget 2023 (Feb 2023)

• Thoughts on the convergence of heartbreak and hope (Feb 2023)

• Police Budget Input Sessions (Nov 2023)

• Ghost Officers (Dec 2023)

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Upcoming Events:

As listed in the TL;WR newsletter: Join the Downtown Kitchener BIA for a Día de los Muertos celebration! Enjoy a cultural parade along King Street East, lively mariachi music, traditional Mexican treats, and beautifully decorated ofrendas. This family-friendly event runs from 9 am to 10 pm and features performances, art activities, food vendors, and free dance lessons at various locations throughout downtown.

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Are you a Toasty Toes champion? The 2024 campaign is now live and you can help to provide clean, warm socks to those in our community who need them. Click to learn more.

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Documentary screening - Bridging Divides: Voices and Visions about Homelessness in Mid-size Cities. November 18th, 2024.

Using a case study of three mid-size cities in Canada, the film features a conversation among two people with lived experience of homelessness and housing precarity, a service provider, business owner, and a member of law enforcement about the causes and consequences of homelessness, public safety, and ways forward.  The documentary provides a greater understanding about homelessness among diverse members of the community with the goal of helping to move towards positive, solutions-focused responses that help build feelings of safety and a sense of belonging for all.

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Building Safer Communities is a project that supports community partners to deliver culturally appropriate mental health and addiction supports for African, Caribbean and Black identifying (ACBi), and First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (Indigenous) youth in Waterloo Region. They are looking for ACBi and Indigenous youth (ages 16-29) from Waterloo Region to join the Youth Decision Making Team. Applications are due by November 19th (12pm). Click to apply.