HALIFAX, N.S. — Driven by frustration, residents have gotten together to tell Halifax regional council: fund community not cops.
They paired an open letter to council on Monday with a petition of 800 names of residents, businesses and community groups who are against increasing the budget for Halifax Regional Police.
“We’re also really trying to bring some light to the fact that the board of police commissioners is really not doing their jobs in many ways,” said Nancy Hunter, one of the authors.
She said a bunch of people came together out of frustration after speaking out against the increases at the police board’s public engagement session on Nov. 22. She said they were able to fill the petition in about a week.
The board isn’t providing accountability, critical analysis “and they have been completely dismissive to the public.”
In an interview Monday, she said they’re also speaking out against the inadequacy of the police board and the intimidating and inaccessible public engagement sessions where they aren’t being heard.
Board-recommended increases for HRP, RCMP
The Halifax Board of Police Commissioners is recommending council endorse an HRP budget of $98,011,400 for 2024/2025 — that’s an increase of over $5.7 million from last year — and includes funding for 22 new positions.
The Halifax District RCMP are asking for six additional positions.
These increases are needed because of the growth of the municipality and police services are being stretched thin, said police board chair Becky Kent.
“When our numbers are down, we have no choice, we have to make sure policing is delivered,” she said in an interview Monday. “Really, it’s about the rationale of what the police put forward.”
RCMP and HRP budgets will appear before the budget committee on Feb. 7, and if they vote against it, it would return to the police board.
Hunter said spending that kind of money when there are so many people struggling is hard to watch.
“We are a city in crisis right now,” she said.
Open Letter to Halifax Regional Council
'Intimidating meetings'
There are virtual and in-person public feedback sessions where HRM residents can speak for five minutes at a time about the HRP budget. But Hunter said they are ineffectual and inaccessible.
“They’re very intimidating meetings, there are often a lot of police there,” Hunter said. “A lot of people who haven’t had good experiences with police and may have been traumatized by them .. and to get up not only to speak in front of them but be publicly critical of them is not easy.”
Kent said she understands but the police are needed at the board meetings for answering questions or clarifications. She suggested anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable speaking with police in the room, should send an email or letter to the board.
“So then they have the opportunity to say what’s on their mind, they’re not restricted to five minutes and then it becomes part of our public record and all of our commissioners read those.”
A question of being heard
Hunter said after years of speaking out against budget increases, it’s frustrating not being heard.
“It’s a public consultation in name only so they can write on a piece of paper that they had public engagement but it’s meaningless because it’s not incorporated.”
Kent said when people sign up for their five minutes in front of the board, often it’s not budget-related but more about bigger changes that need to be made.
“We are making some significant changes around (policing) models and approaches to certain types of challenges so we are hearing them,” she said. “We are not mandated to respond to every single request that they make.”
But they are mandated to hear what they have to say, Kent added. But then the board makes decisions using all kinds of information, including service delivery pressures based on population growth, Kent said.
“It’s more complicated than just hearing someone say ‘you shouldn’t fund the police.’”
There are many recommendations on police reform from the Defund the Police report, the Mass Casualty report and a review of the HRM’s dual policing model. Kent said progress is being made, although not at the speed some residents would like.
During one of the public engagement sessions in the fall, a number of business owners and downtown Dartmouth residents said they wanted more police positions and presence because the exploding homeless population has caused them all kinds of problems.
Hunter said those residents are in the minority and there are thousands like her who are against police spending.
