Extra $1M in fines not doable

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This article was published 10/03/2012 (5008 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Winnipeg Police Service was asked to collect an extra $1 million worth of traffic fines this year, an amount Chief Keith McCaskill said Friday can’t be achieved.

But no one at city hall will own up to who made the request.

Appearing before city council’s protection and community services committee on Friday, Winnipeg’s outgoing chief said the police service was asked to reduce this year’s overtime by $1 million, generate an extra $1 million in ticket revenue and find $1 million in efficiencies, a political euphemism for spending cuts.

The police service figured out how to manage the spending cuts but could only commit to $400,000 in additional net ticket revenue and merely try to prevent overtime costs from ballooning further, McCaskill told the committee during a five-hour meeting about the 2012 operating budget, the city’s $900-million spending blueprint for services.

McCaskill said it isn’t possible to generate $1 million in extra ticket revenue as part of a traffic-enforcement program designed to improve safety, and not merely generate money.

“This is something they were asking us to consider. We’re stating, ‘I don’t think that’s achievable (but) we’ll do the best we can with traffic enforcement to ensure safety on the streets,” McCaskill told reporters after he addressed the committee.

The police service plans to spend an extra $1 million on traffic-unit staff and collect an extra $1.4 million in traditional traffic-enforcement revenue — that is, using officers instead of photo radar — for a net increase of $400,000 worth of tickets.

McCaskill said he is not concerned whether that figure winds up being met, as he maintains revenue is just a byproduct of the police service’s traffic safety and enforcement plan.

“We are going to do our enforcement for safety purposes and whatever the numbers are, they will be,” he said.

McCaskill said the $1-million target floated during the budget process came from city finance officials. The chief, who plans to retire when his contract ends in December, said Mayor Sam Katz has never directed him to increase ticket revenue. Katz’s office directed queries about the police budget to city finance officials. They, in turn, declined interview requests.

And city council finance chairman Scott Fielding (St. James) said the police — not finance officials or politicians — develop the police budget.

Fielding said the police were merely asked to find the spending cuts, approximately $1 million of which will be achieved through means such as cancelling a fall recruit class this year, putting off vehicle purchases, closing a pair of police service centres and putting the police horse patrol out to pasture.

The police budget stands at $220 million, or just under a quarter of Winnipeg’s total annual program spending. Salaries and benefits account for approximately 85 per cent of police spending, which has increased $18 million — nine per cent — since 2011.

Given that increase, roughly three times the rate of inflation, the city was justified in demanding some form of fiscal austerity from the police service, Fielding said.

“The police, like every other department in the City of Winnipeg, needs to find some efficiencies and I think they’ve outlined some strategies to do that,” Fielding said.

He said council played no role in any ticket-revenue decision but said he personally likes the idea of conducting more traditional traffic enforcement because officers on the street can conduct other forms of policing — something photo-radar cameras can’t do.

The police budget also calls for a nearly $2-million reduction in photo-radar ticket revenue, a move necessitated by photo-radar revenue shortfalls over the previous three years. Fielding and Katz have spent the past two weeks noting that cancels out any additional revenue on the traditional­ enforcement side. It wasn’t possible to reduce overtime costs by $1 million this year because the city has hired 54 more officers, most of whom will work some extra hours, McCaskill said.

The $1 million in spending cuts won’t impact front-line services, added the chief, noting the service centres slated for closure saw little traffic and there would not be enough recruits in a 2012 fall class to warrant the training costs. McCaskill only expressed regret over the decision to eliminate the horse patrol, which will save the city a scant $20,000. “I can tell you, people love those horses,” he said.

To place that figure in perspective, during the same budget meeting, Couns. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) and Thomas Steen (Elmwood) voted to spend an additional $578,000 this year on community services. Committee chairwoman Paula Havixbeck (Charleswood) opposed the move. It’s bound to be reversed next week at council’s executive policy committee.

Council votes on the operating budget on March 20.

 

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca