Chief Clunis: Police costs ‘not sustainable’

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This article was published 21/03/2016 (3496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s outgoing police chief says he recognizes policing costs are unsustainable and he would ultimately like to see a reduced need for police in the city — but that can only happen, Devon Clunis said, if community partners step up to address the chronic social issues he says take up 80 per cent of police officers’ time.

The day before the municipal budget is expected to be approved by city council with a $2.45-million police budget shortfall the Winnipeg Police Service and police board will need to grapple with, Clunis spoke to reporters at the new police headquarters building, saying he doesn’t want the public to think the police service agrees with the “unsustainable” rise in the cost of policing.

“It is not sustainable. I don’t think any of us want to see that be sustained. But what we have to do is what we’re doing currently, in terms of the partnerships and what we’re doing currently in terms of the partnerships and addressing the root causes of crime, the collective impact approach — we have just started down that road. And my mindset was always to see us get to the point where we can reduce the number of police officers in the city because the demand within our city’s been reduced for the needs of the police service,” he said.

If approved as expected, the police budget would increase 6.3 per cent over this year — a hike of $16.7 million, but not quite the $20-million increase the police service initially asked for to maintain status quo operations.

In their budget estimate, the police service and the police board asked the city to approve a $20-million budget increase just to maintain status-quo operations, later proposing a leaner $18.95-million increase. Without that money, the police service said it may have to cut jobs. It’s proposing layoffs of 40 cadets and 20 new police recruits, as well as cancellation of a 20-officer fall recruit class. The job cuts aren’t for certain, with police board chairman Coun. Scott Gillingham proposing instead to cut a $1-million body camera pilot project and find another $1.4 million in savings to be announced Tuesday.

The bulk of the increase is due to previously agreed upon expenses: salary and benefit raises ($9.6 million) and debt payments to the city ($6.4 million), as well as extra costs associated with the move into the new headquarters building on Smith Street.

Rent at the new HQ, housed in the old Canada Post building, will cost police about $17 million annually — more than double the roughly $7 million the police service pays now at the Public Safety Building.

Clunis, who is retiring after 31/2 years as chief and 29 years in the police service, said the city would not entertain requests to reduce the police service’s rent.

He said job cuts needed to be explored. Salaries and benefits account for 85 per cent of the police budget, leaving only 15 per cent for operational expenses such as uniforms, equipment and fuel costs.

“You need to be able to outfit your officers, you need to be able to have equipment, photocopies — everything else outside of the salaries and benefits is paid for in that 15 per cent. Over the years, we’ve reduced as much as we can,” Clunis said.

“I’d much rather say let’s reduce by 20 officers than have 20 officers that you can’t properly outfit — that does long-term impact us.”

Other big-ticket police purchases, including the Air1 helicopter — which WPS bought for $3.5 million in 2010, and a $343,000 armoured vehicle to be delivered this spring, have faced public criticism in light of recent budget discussions. The province pays for the helicopter’s $1.7-million operating costs and has ordered an audit of the Air1 program.

“You can certainly have a one-time savings if they wanted to sell the helicopter,” Clunis said, but he maintained the armoured car was necessary to protect the police service from being held liable in case an officer or a member of the public were hurt.

“So that is a purchase that certainly we’re not going to be apologetic for because I think it was necessary and in terms of a modern policing agency, yes, you have the ability to provide your members with what is required to protect themselves and protect the public, we now become the ones who are liable. So I don’t believe that that was a frivolous purchase by any stretch of the imagination.”

A driving force behind the rising cost of policing — besides police salaries, he said, is the social problems that fall to police — they’re often called upon to deal with non-criminal domestic disputes, Child and Family Services cases and individuals with mental-health issues.

That’s why these budget discussions need to bring the community together to spur other agencies to help, Clunis said.

“This should actually be a rallying point for all of us, because you’re not hearing the Winnipeg Police Service saying that ‘yes, these costs can just continue to rise uncontrolled.’ No, we say they need to be controlled but we need to do it in a strategic fashion, which doesn’t now just demolish everything that we’ve worked hard to achieve to this point. We can do this in a very strategic fashion that in the end, the entire city comes out ahead.”

Police board chairman Gillingham agreed.

“The rate at which policing costs have risen over the last several years is a real challenge. What it’s going to take — I concur with the chief in the sense that it’s going to take all the stakeholders to be part of the solution. We need the police board, and the police service, and council, and the province, and non-profit organizations and the police association. Everyone that’s involved, I believe, needs to be part of the solution to ensure that adequate, effective policing in Winnipeg can be delivered year after year in an affordable manner. And I think all the stakeholders can and should play a part in finding the solutions,” Gillingham said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca