Show of force: Community leaders back proposed $672M police budget

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The London police chief’s record-setting budget request has won the backing from the largest public-sector employers in the city in an unprecedented show of support.

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The heads of the city’s hospitals, Fanshawe College, Western University and school boards joined members of the police board and Chief Thai Truong Wednesday to urge Londoners to support the proposed $672-million police budget.

“It speaks to the fact that this is not just a London police initiative . . . It has wide-spread community support and we wanted to reflect that today,” police board chair Ali Chahbar said of the leaders’ support for the spending request.

The public-sector leaders’ endorsement of the four-year police budget came the same day Mayor Josh Morgan tabled his proposed 2024-2027 city budget that includes a four-year average property tax hike of 7.4 per cent, representing roughly $115 for every $100,000 in assessed value.

The leaders supporting the police budget included Western University president Alan Shepard, Fanshawe College president Peter Devlin, London District Catholic school board education director Vince Romeo, Thames Valley District school board education director Mark Fisher, London Health Sciences Centre corporate hospital administration executive Brad Campbell and St. Joseph’s chief executive and president Roy Butler.

Those leaders were consulted as part of the police board’s extensive outreach to more than 300 community organizations, businesses groups, neighbourhood associations and other stakeholders, Chahbar said.

“If you go talk to Londoners, you’ll find out the vast majority . . . support and want and deserve a safer city and safer neighbourhoods and safer streets,” he said.

Truong and the police board have pitched the budget – which includes hiring 189 employees, outfitting front-line officers with body cameras and building a new training centre – as a way of modernizing the force and changing the way police deliver service.

London is no longer a safe city, Truong said, citing statistics showing it has the second-fewest officers per capita in Ontario, the third-highest rate of violent crime and response times that average more than four days for the least-pressing calls.

The public-sector leaders took turns speaking about the importance of their relationship with police and the pressures London’s rapid growth is putting on their institutions.

Campbell described how the rise in mental health calls – more than 5,000 annually – is challenging both police and the hospital system.

“Behind every one of those calls is a person, someone reaching out, someone who needs help and someone who deserves the care that will support them in their journey to get better,” Campbell said.

“Everyone deserves to receive care for their health-care needs including when they are at their most vulnerable. While it is important that health-care workers be the first point of care for those with acute mental health needs, we greatly value our police partners as first responders and the role they play in helping support safe care.”

Shepard said the proposed budget will result in making London safer by enabling police to better respond to emergencies, prevent crime and create a more prosperous city.

“(It) will help make London an even stronger destination of choice for young leaders and professionals and their families who come from across Canada and the world to our community to Western and to London,” he said. “As a post-secondary institution deeply connected to this great city, we stand with our police partners in support of Chief Truong’s vision and the London police services board’s plan for a safer city now.”

Fisher, who oversees the fourth-largest school board in Ontario, said enrolment has surged by around 6,000 students in the past five years, pushing the bulk of its schools to their capacity.

“In a post-pandemic era we are dealing with levels of dysregulation and challenges amongst students and student behaviour that we really didn’t have to deal with previously,” he said. “And, on multiple occasions, we have reached out to London police services to provide support and they have been there at our darkest hour.”

Fischer recalled the Sept. 20, 2023, protest outside the board’s Dundas Street headquarters, where more than 2,000 demonstrators and counter-protesters gathered as part of a Canada-wide movement opposing children being exposed to information about sexuality and gender identity in the classroom. Eighty police officers were deployed to keep the peace and nobody was injured or arrested, a feat that one deputy police chief credited to extensive planning and communicating with demonstrators.

“They kept people on both sides calm and allowed education to continue through that day,” Fisher said.

The London Police Association, the union representing more than 900 officers and civilian employees, also has endorsed the proposed budget – representing a 34 per cent increase during four years, including a 16 per cent jump in the first year alone – and released a statement urging Londoners to contact their councillors to express their support.

“Once this budget is passed, we trust the (police board) will hold administration accountable and provide the necessary oversight to ensure successful implementation of these transformative changes,” the association said in a statement released this week.

The police budget is expected to be a major item of discussion when city councillors begin drafting the city’s multi-year budget on Thursday. City council has the final say on the proposed police budget.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com