Police board approves additions to Saskatoon police's 2023 budget
Saskatoon police sought to add $760,000 to its 2023 request to the city with inflation and higher fuel prices one factor in the increase.
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After less than an hour of discussion Thursday afternoon, the Saskatoon board of police commissioners approved revisions to the Saskatoon Police Service’s operating and capital budgets for next year.
Police Chief Troy Cooper presented the changes to both of its 2023 budgets to the board, which last year approved the 2023 plan as part of the 2022-2023 budget cycle. The revision to the capital budget adds $1.783 million more in spending, offset by $1.023 million in revenue.
Police cited increased inflationary pressures, namely to fuel and natural gas rates, and the cost of making the Alternative Response Unit permanent, behind the added $760,000 to its request to the city. The police’s proposed request to the city is now $113.7 million.
The 2023 operating budget plan had previously forecast expenses of more than $124 million and revenues of more than $11.6 million.
As per the report Cooper presented to the board, the police’s revised expenses of $99 million for staff compensation and $27.3 million for other expenses brought the total new spending amount to $126.4 million, offset by a revised anticipated revenue of $12.68 million.
It represents a $6.7-million increase in spending over the 2022 budget, which included anticipated expenses of more than $119.7 million and forecasted revenues of nearly $11.5 million. The Saskatoon police’s request would account for about 21 per cent of the City of Saskatoon’s annual spending.
Pertaining to the capital budget, police will be transferring $3,595,300 to its capital reserves, unchanged from the amount approved. Police plan to spend more than $3.4 million from its capital reserves, which is $201,000 less than previously expected.
Planned purchases include in-car camera replacements, replacements of the conducted energy weapons/Tasers and equipment and licensing costs for 40 additional body-worn cameras to bring the total number to 80 by the end of next year.
Inflation may have slowed by a 10th of a per cent to 6.9 per cent nationwide in September, but is looming large over the overall city budget. The city is now anticipating costs of $1.70 per litre for gas and $1.80/L for diesel.
Saskatoon police’s current fuel costs were budgeted for about $744,000 in 2022, but by mid-year, it predicted about a $188,000 shortfall due to rising fuel costs, Cooper told the board.
He told the StarPhoenix the idea of using a greener fleet of vehicles “is something that we’re interested in, continue to look at and when it makes sense for our environment is something we’ll certainly be interested in seeing.”
The police also added $350,000 to its 2023 budget to make the Alternative Response Unit a permanent part of the Saskatoon Police Service. The board had unanimously approved this at its September meeting. Police already had half of the $700,000 needed to fund making the six positions permanent built into the budget.
The 2023 budget includes new officer positions: four patrol constables, a forensic identification constable, and a street crime analyst special constable.
It also includes the addition of civilian positions: an additional junior access and privacy officer and an additional audio/visual disclosure position. An A/V disclosure position was added in 2022.
Several months into the pilot, Cooper said the A/V disclosure positions are still required for the body-worn camera program as it matures, and they’re trying to evaluate how many positions will be necessary for a fully-functional body-worn camera program.
“I think we have an idea, we just got to make sure we get that accurate, so that we can go back to our decision-makers and say for 160 or 260 cameras, this is the cost based on licensing, based on capital costs for equipment, but also based on the additional human resources required,” he said.
The 2023 revision includes the addition of three Internet Child Exploitation Program investigators and two Saskatchewan Trafficking and Response Team investigators, with the province funding these positions.
The police budget will go to city council during its budget meetings for final approval in late November.
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