Halifax police propose expanding hate crime unit with $95M budget in 2023

Halifax Regional Police plan to expand a hate crime unit and add an in-house psychologist as part of the $95.2 million budget proposed for next year.

Chief Dan Kinsella gave the city's Board of Police Commissioners an overview of the budget this week, including a request for a new hate crime detective which would bring the unit to two full-time officers.

The number of hate incidents reported to Halifax Regional Police (HRP) made a huge jump this year, with 156 as of Nov. 2, compared to just three last year. There were also 61 confirmed or suspected hate crimes in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 13 in 2021.

The force began tracking reported hate incidents in 2021, but have long kept numbers on confirmed or suspected hate crimes. Kinsella said it's key to track overall incidents to see any trends. 

"This particular resource will go a long way to deal with what we expect to be continued high numbers," Kinsella told the board.

"That's what we want. We want the community to come forward so we can properly investigate and we can properly …prevent some of these incidents from occurring."

Timothy Bryan, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, said with any crime statistic it's difficult to know whether a spike shows an increase in the acts themselves or simply more people reporting what's always been happening.

But he agreed that tracking the total number of incidents is key, along with having enough resources in a hate crime unit to both keep track of data and offer outreach to build trust in marginalized communities. 

"It goes a long way to allaying fears within communities, goes a long way towards ensuring the people feel that they are accepted and welcomed and have full participation in society," Bryan said in an interview.

"It's a really, really key part of what I think is the, you know, mandate of police.… I think that this is a key area that needs to be bolstered."

Bryan also said that investment in dedicated hate crime officers who have the proper training and skills can help police intervene before situations escalate.

"We also know … those who commit incidents of hate may in fact at one time or another engage in more serious conduct," Bryan said. "Without recording those incidents, you may not have an idea that something more serious may be on its way."

A new in-house psychologist and occupational health nurse are also part of the proposed budget to better support officers' mental-health and help them return to work, Kinsella said.

The psychologist would have the ability to join officers on calls and get a better understanding of the stresses of frontline policing, Kinsella said, while developing trusting relationships. 

Dean Stienburg, president of the Halifax Regional Police Association, said he's glad to see the request for new mental health support, which the union has been pushing for. He added that officers are burning out due to understaffing.

"It's a priority to get people healthy and get them back to work, and this is a good step in the right direction I believe," Stienburg said.

The new resources, plus a sergeant position for the Emergency Response Team's K9 group and a police science program supervisor, would cost about $628,000 according to the budget.

The overall budget is up about $6 million from last year, largely due to a bump in officer salaries. The 2021 contract won HRP union members a 10 per cent raise over four years between 2020-2023.

RCMP ask for 16 officers over three years 

Halifax RCMP have also shared their budget plan with the board, and are asking for 16 new officers over the next three years. The report said many former rural residential areas in Halifax Regional Municipality have grown at an "extraordinary rate" in the last five years, and they need more members to keep up.

Halifax's current annual cost of an RCMP officer is $179,052 including salary, vehicle costs, overtime and equipment. That's 70 per cent of the total cost of an officer, with the rest paid by the federal government. That means the four Mounties requested for next year would cost the municipality about $716,200.

The Board of Police Commissioners will hold a public meeting on both budgets on Jan.16, before the funding requests go before regional council Feb.1, 2023.