Toronto Police Service & the Budget Crisis

The Toronto Police Service's Chief of Police, Bill Blair is on the horns of a real dilemma with this round of budget debates. Facing pressure to introduce a revised police budget which reflects the 10% cuts required by City Hall, Blair's gone to the other extreme by requesting a 1.5% increase. The article below summarizes the outline of the battle:

Budget Cuts at TPS

The problem is that Blair is painting himself into an untenable corner. By resisting the requests of his civilian governing authority, the Toronto Police Services Board, Blair is going out on a limb. But he's also making an assertion that is impossible to prove: that the required 10% cuts will endanger public safety. It's not feasible for a competent senior police executive to make this a believable claim. Blair could certainly suggest that such cuts "could" impact public safety, but there's no basis for the precise prediction that these cuts "will" disrupt public safety.

We are watching ongoing and persistent declines in crime rates in Canadian cities. Of course, there has to be some degree of balance that sees police services maintaining a convincing capacity to deliver their core services: law enforcement, crime prevention, assistance to victims of crime, emergency response, and public order maintenance. But, Blair's police services board is absolutely correct when it continues to press him to seek out economies and efficiencies that could well draw down the overall magnitude of the department's enormous budget.  However, the Toronto Police Services Board is wrong to suggest that increased civilianization will provide for dramatically cheaper personnel. A modern police service includes civilians who are highly skilled, hugely credentialed and extremely costly commodities. The areas where civilians are found include: psychologists, information technologists, strategic planners, educational designers, public relations specialists, legal counsel, human resource consultants. These are not inexpensive resources. Certainly, it's a useful education to look at the number of Toronto Police Service personnel (civilian and sworn) who earn well over $100K per year.

Policing has become far too expensive for any municipality's besieged taxpayer to bear. Bill Blair may appear to be standing up for his department and speaking up for public safety, but, the appearance is not the reality and someone needs to speak reasonably about the realities of a broader community wellness.