Saskatoon police project $7.65M operating budget spending increase in 2024
Saskatoon police plan to add 15 new constable positions over 2024 and 2025.
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Saskatoon city police expect to spend $134 million next year and $141 million in 2025, according to the force’s two-year preliminary budgets.
The proposed budgets — which must first be approved by the board of police commissioners before proceeding to city council’s budget deliberations — is on the agenda for Thursday’s police commission meeting.
Police last week provided a preview of the preliminary budgets to the city’s governance and priorities committee, to get a sense of what to expect as it deals with projected budget shortfalls in the 2024 and 2025 budget years.
The force plans to spend $134,055,700 in 2024, offset by $12,662,400 in expected revenues, bringing the funding request to the city to $121,393,300. In 2025, $141,038,400 in projected spending would be offset by $12,796,300 in anticipated revenues, bringing the budget request to $128,242,100.
In 2023, the final approved police budget included $126.4 million in expenses offset by projected revenues of $12,680,000. The proposed budget for 2024 represents a $7.652 million increase in spending over the previous year.
Police expect increases in non-staffing costs, including $285,700 for uniforms, and $163,000 for vehicle and equipment rentals due to inflation and fuel cost increases.
The force wants to add seven constables in 2024 — four in patrol and three in the Community Mobilization Unit — to maintain the level of service response. It also wants to add two civilian positions, including one in human resources to help officers return to work after critical incidents.
The staffing increases in 2024 will bring the police department to a total of 734.33 full-time equivalent employees, including 505 regular police officers.
In 2025, police plan to similarly add four new patrol constables and three new CMU constable positions; they also want to add an eighth new constable position to the serious assault unit and one civilian health professional to human resources to support the work of the staff psychologist.
Police administrators say the current police officer to population ratio is 165 officers per 100,000 people, which they contend is “relatively low” compared to other municipal police forces. Regina’s ratio, by comparison, is slightly higher at 169.3 per 100,000.
The budget document says demands on police have increased significantly over the last several years, including a 32 per cent increase in calls for service between 2015 and 2022. It says officers have responded to 79 per cent more calls in 2022 for suspicious persons, intoxication and disturbances — described as “social disorder” calls — compared to seven years earlier: 31,543 calls last year versus 17,652 in 2015.
Police wants to add six officers to the CMU, which was originally introduced in 2020 to patrol the 20th Street West area near the safe drug consumption site operated by Prairie Harm Reduction.
The Pleasant Hill Community Association, which represents residents of the neighbourhood, has asked to have a representative speak at Thursday’s meeting.
Association president Adam Pollock, in a letter included on the meeting agenda, asked police to consider the needs of the Pleasant Hill community, saying that despite investment in the neighbourhood, residents don’t feel safe.
“They do not appreciate their children being exposed to violence, people under the influence, harassment and dirty needles on a daily basis,” Pollock wrote.
He also noted an increase in the number of arsons in the area and an overrepresentation of Pleasant Hill in city crime statistics.
Pollock suggested creating a Pleasant Hill Alternative Response Team as a four-year pilot project to conduct patrols, alongside increasing police patrols on 20th and 21st Street West from Avenue P to Avenue R between 11:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., to protect community members and St. Paul’s Hospital staff.
The police capital budget for 2024 and its capital plan for 2025 to 2028 were also released. Capital spending is funded by existing capital reserves, and funds are transferred into the reserves from the operating budget. For 2024, police plan to transfer $3,505,300 into capital reserves.
Next year, the force plans to spend $3.095 million on equipment and technology replacements and $548,000 for equipment expansion. The spending on replacements includes $218,000 for new conducted energy weapons (stun guns or Tasers), $791,000 for pistols, and $144,000 for aircraft equipment replacement.
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