Waterloo regional police want $10M budget increase

Waterloo Regional Police Service wants an extra $10 million in the next budget.

The department presented a draft of its 2019 budget at the police services board meeting on Wednesday.

The proposed budget comes in at $171.5 million, an increase of more than $10 million — or 6.4 per cent — compared to 2018.

The police budget is paid by the Region of Waterloo, and regional council would need to decide whether or not to approve any increases.

Chief Bryan Larkin said policing is becoming more complex as crime increases and the nature of crime changes. 

The police-reported crime rate in Waterloo region went up by 1 per cent between 2007 and 2017, according to Statistics Canada.

The overall police-reported crime rate in all of Canada decreased by 23 per cent in that same 10-year period.

"Every call I get as the chief is about 'more,'" Larkin said.

"You know we're struggling to meet the demands of our community, and I've always believed that the community sets the expectation of policing. And what I'm hearing from our community and through our business planning process is, 'We want more visibility, we want enhanced resources.'"

Keeping up with a growing community

Public policy changes like cannabis legalization have led to higher demands on police when it comes to training, Larkin said.

At the same time, more people are taking time off work for parental leave or due to occupational injuries.

Larkin added the community is also growing.

"We're officially at 600 thousand people, the tenth largest community in Canada, and we require resources to keep up with that," he said.

The police services board has asked the department to look at ways to trim the proposed 2019 budget down. It will be presented to the board again next month, before final approval in January.