Hamilton police chief questioned for hours about $196M 'maintenance' budget

Hamilton police Chief Frank Bergen answered more than three hours worth of questions from city council during Wednesday's general issues committee meeting about the police service's request to have a roughly $196 million budget approved.

Hamilton Police Service (HPS) is asking for $195,851,008, up $12 million or 6.71 per cent from last year's budget.

Bergen's presentation came a day after councillors asked city staff if they could reject the budget and if so, what would happen next.

Bergen told councillors this year's budget wasn't over the top, but rather is needed to provide adequate and effective policing. He said it could be far more expensive if he tried to implement things like body cameras for officers.

"This is a maintenance budget ... there is nothing discretionary," he said. "For every one per cent operating cost you ask me to deplete my budget, that's 19 sworn full-time employees," Bergen said while answering a question from Ward 8 Coun. John Paul Danko.

Bergen also emphasized the need to work with community agencies, adding the service gave $1.6 million from its grant money to agencies like Interval House, YMCA, Wesley Urban Ministries, John Howard Society and Hamilton Regional Indian Centre. 

"We are not the answer for everything, we are not the default service provider," he said.

With a new crop of councillors and police services facing increased scrutiny in recent years, the chances of Hamilton city council rejecting the police service's request for a budget bump are higher than ever this year — but it's still unclear how many councillors are considering that move right now.

During the meeting a 15-year-old student died after a hit and run while walking home from school. Another 15-year-old student was robbed and stabbed near a different high school. Officers made arrests in both cases.

Most of the budget, Bergen said, is to pay officers's salaries, overtime and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board claims. The budget works out to $332 per resident for the year, according to the presentation.

He added the budget request could be reduced by over $2 million if the city paid for services like a parking lot replacement at station 10, a roof replacement at station 20 and a vehicle to transport vehicles, among a few other things.

Bergen also said local police get less funding compared to neighbouring municipalities.

Calls for trespassing and car crashes are up

The HPS presentation showed officers are facing increasing workloads while trying to serve a growing population.

There were 419,690 calls for service in 2022, roughly 9,600 more than 2021.

Dispatches were also up 3,673 from the year prior for a total of 100,579 dispatches in 2022.

Calls for trespassing jumped by 27.3 per cent compared to 2021.

Calls for car crashes also grew by 11 per cent. Calls for ambulance assistance, partner or family violence and for people in crisis all fell.

Officers' dispatch time to calls grew, according to the presentation.

In 2021, the officers would respond to the highest priority calls in about 22 seconds, which is beneath their target time of 30 seconds. In 2022, that was up to a minute and nine seconds.

Bergen said that was still within an acceptable standard.

More guns being found on streets but record-low homicides

The presentation showed the city saw a drastic drop in homicides this past year.

In 2022, there were five homicides, a record-low according to Bergen, compared to 19 in 2021, which was the highest number in recent memory.

He credited that to police dedicating last year to stopping retaliatory violence in neighbourhoods. He pointed to Project Strong, a four-month investigation, which saw 112 people charged and took roughly $1.8 million in drugs off the streets.

In 2022, there were 45 shootings, which is six more than the year prior. Despite that, the number of victims fell from 21 in 2021 to 17 in 2022.

The number of guns found increased from 204 in 2021 to 290 in 2022. Bergen said more teenagers are also getting their hands on guns.

There were 24 deaths from car crashes in 2022 compared to 16 in 2021.

The presentation by police also broke down the cost of responding to some of these incidents.

For example, the first 48 hours of the police response to a deadly crash involving a DARTS bus cost police roughly $31,208 because of the 632 investigative hours and 39 officers required.

The cost of responding to a "fake homecoming" party by McMaster students and others was $134,904, requiring 207 officers and 2,034 total operational hours.

Officers praised for their work

Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroetsch asked Bergen what he thought of the Toronto Community Crisis Service, a pilot that sees mental health experts instead of police respond to calls involving people in crisis.

Bergen said a service like that would be great, but said it doesn't come cheap, noting how the City of Toronto dedicates $12 million to it — the same amount HPS wants to increase its budget by.

Ward 4 Coun. Tammy Hwang asked Bergen about how it is diversifying the police service and about offering more open data. Bergen said there is lots of competition for recruits and said he works with a lawyer and data experts in the service to ensure what they can share with the public.

Mayor Andrea Horwath and councillors Esther Pauls, Mark Tadeson, Matt Francis, Maureen Wilson, Mike Spadafora, Ted McMeekin and Tom Jackson were among those who praised officers for their work throughout the year.

Some of them also asked questions about the importance of the police service's mounted unit, how the police service will combat dangerous drivers and if police officers can be more present in the day-to-day.

"People feel safe when they see police officers in their community," said Spadafora, councillor for Ward 14.

Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann asked Bergen if police had a definition and any ways to measure "adequate and effective policing."

Bergen deferred to Marco Visentini, a lawyer with HPS, who said there is no definition.

Bergen pointed to last year's Our City survey, which he said 79 per cent of respondents who used the police service rated as excellent, very good or good. The results aren't posted on the city website.

Meanwhile, Wednesday's discussion also comes after a year in which at least one community group made recommendations to help address the "harm done by law enforcement agencies" against Indigenous peoples, in light of a Hamilton officer allegedly assaulted an Indigenous man during an arrest. 

The same incident prompted the Hamilton Police Services Board to request the police service review all policies and procedures related to prisoner handling and use of force.

City council will debate what to do with HPS's budget request in February.