2 Hamilton city councillors will support call for defunding police

Two Hamilton city councillors will make public statements Wednesday in favour of defunding police and putting the money into other community safety efforts. 

Nrinder Nann (Ward 3) and Maureen Wilson (Ward 1) say they'll make a virtual statement on Facebook at 8:30 a.m. about the call to "defund police services and reallocate public funds toward community safety and well-being."

Black Lives Matter activists and supporters have been calling for governments to defund — or in some cases, abolish — existing police services. They want cities to replace them with a more community-based model, saying the current one puts Black lives at risk.

Last week, Hamilton's police board voted to examine a budget cut, but only as a way to show why it was a bad idea, a move called "condescending" by a BLM spokesperson.

Demonstrations have been happening around the world, including two in Hamilton last weekend, after the high-profile murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. Video shows a police officer putting his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said he couldn't breathe and called out for his mother. 

Both Nann, who represents the central lower city, and Wilson, who represents the west end, said last week that they were open to a re-envisioning. The Hamilton Police Service (HPS) budget continues to grow, Nann said, while the city struggles to meet other core services. 

"There are important questions being raised of every police service: What does the future of policing look like? Are police services the appropriate public service to administer wellness checks? How can we redesign community-based services for crisis intervention to meet the needs of residents facing mental health, addiction or housing crises?" she wrote.

"Each of these questions in turn ask us what outcomes are we looking to achieve in Hamilton, what services do we need to redesign, and how do we invest strategically and sustainability to deliver those outcomes."

At a Thursday HPS board meeting, Coun. Chad Collins (Ward 5, Centennial) asked for a report back from HPS showing what a 20-per cent funding cut would look like. Collins said he largely wants to show people why taking money from the police budget wouldn't work.

He's open to finding savings, he said. But defunding police would reduce service, and his constituents don't want that.

"I think those people who are advocating for those reductions need to know what they're asking for," he said. 

Mayor Fred Eisenberger was skeptical too, although there is "a discussion" to have about whether police are providing services they shouldn't, such as answering mental health calls.

"The police have been pulled into a lot of additional social work over the years — for all the right reasons," he said. 

But "is there a conversation to be had around whether or not police should continue to get pulled into social service areas? I think that's reasonable."

Tom Jackson, city council's third representative on the board, said any ward that doesn't want police service can send the officers to Ward 6 on the east Mountain.

"My community is asking overwhelmingly for more police visibility," he said.