Stubbs Commits to Current Service Levels Despite Budget Drop
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 @ 3:59 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The Police Service budget has been trimmed by $1.2 million dollars, ( to $20.4 million) money that would, ( barring an emergency or complex homicide investigate) likely have ended up in a surplus and returned to Prince George City Hall.
Although the new budget is about $1 million more than what was actually spent in 2012, it still may not be enough to cover the realities of policing in Prince George.
Superintendent Eric Stubbs addressed Council and repeatedly said that what he needs, is more “boots on the ground” be if for general duty, traffic services, or special investigations. He also indicated that even though the new =budget is a million dollars more than what was spent last year, most of that increase ( $600 thousand) will be eaten up by increases to the pension plan and wages, and the balance will disappear once some vacancies have been filled.
Still, Superintendent Stubbs is optimistic he won’t be left hanging if a financial need arises “Council has been very clear with me throughout this process, that they do not want the service level to decrease whatsoever, so that’s what I’m going to aim for.”
The RCMP operates on a fiscal year, while the City budgets for a calendar year. So on the one hand, the local detachment is two months into the City’s budget cycle, and just a month away from the RCMP year end. “It’s too early in the (City’s) year to judge where we are (financially)” says Superintendent Stubbs, but he is projecting that if all the positions are filled, they will be over budget. But Stubbs says he won’t be holding back on hiring the officers he needs, or conducting the initiatives he wants to conduct “Council has been very clear that they don’t want e to decrease the service level if I hold back, then I would be decreasing the service level, and that’s not the direction I’ve been given.”
Comments
Sounds like Stubb’s is going to make sure he goes over budget to just make a point with council, then I guess next year taxer payers will be playing catch up with the RCMP budget…..
So I guess we keep our place at the top of the crime ratings?
My question is the City wants a 3,5 persent tax increase on average from the citzens but – yet no one has said a word but the approximate one hundred thousand dollars our City Fire Rescue Service spent on outfitting there members:
with nice down filled club jackets – estimated cost $700.00 per unit – these jackets can not be used anywhere close to a fire they will melt aka club jackets but they do look good.
Pyjama’s for all that sleep at night – have to be some sort of uniform issue for sleeping the night away – anyone else get those supplied by there employer
and lets not forget the wonderful personal boots good to -100 degrees F – good for washing there vehicles behind the firehalls cause they are not safety rated to be used in any stucture fire
Am I the only one that see’s a problem here.
Maybe someone should be an official answer to this line on the budget
Just wondering
“So I guess we keep our place at the top of the crime ratings?”
who knows … there is very little relationship between the number of police in a city and crime rates.
We have more police per population than most cities our size.
Local culture is more of an indicator. That is one of the reasons why the west tends to have a higher crime rate than the east.
More police issuing traffic tickets in area’s where people are driving dangerous, ie; Hart Highway, 97 South to BC Rail Industrial Park, and 16 West to Haldi Road, would be good area’s. This should generate extra revenue for the City.
Seems to me the City got over $1Million from RCMP fines last year. Where did this money go??
The sooner we get the prolific offenders in jail the sooner the crime rate will start to drop, and then we will have less need, for 128 Police.
As a matter of interest I don’t believe that Prince George has ever had the full contingent. At one time there were three officers working the Community Policing, and they were returned to General Duties, and replaced with civilians.
Since that time crime stats have dropped, so we are probably ok with the number we have.
Problem is we need the police, and the City to work together to make it work. Having veiled threats about drops in service is not helpful.
It always amazes me that politicians just don’t get the fact that organized crime have millions of dollars to spend on lawyers, illegal enterprises, bling, dope and then they hamstring law enforcement every step of the way. Here we have high crime all over the province yet municipal government keeps putting the hammer down basically saying yes we want you to clean up our town, but we’re not going to help you do that. No reality.
police cost have been going up more than almost any other single service …… despite being near the top of the list of high crime rates, the actual crime rates have been going down over the last 15 to 20 years …….. as I said, there is more than throwing money at the problem at work here ….. we get the beginners here ……
Up until the mid-1990s there was very little evidence that increasing the number of police officers might result in a reduction in crime â or that reducing the number of officers might lead to an increase in crime.
Most of these recent studies converge on two key findings:
Higher levels of police are linked to lower levels of property crime.
EVIDENCE FOR AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN POLICE NUMBERS AND VIOLENT CRIME IS WEAKER.
http://www.academia.edu/796325/Police_numbers_and_crime_rates_-_a_rapid_evidence_review
Spend money wisely, not foolishly as this city does.
So the real question becomes, why does Stubbs not understand what others do?
Why do we get stuck ith old school thinking?
Because we are a backwaters town?
from the above linked literature review:
“Much violent crime, however, is conducted in the heat of the moment in pubs or on the street, or behind closed doors in the home. In neithercase would one expect consideration or even awareness of potential police attention tocome into play”
As I wrote before, it is the social characteristics of the communities we live in as we move from west to east and south to north.
Organized crime will show up on the front pages …. wife beating, public fighting, and many other types of assault, etc. are all continuing as they alwsy have in PG.
Remember, MacLean’s was not doing these kind of reviews in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s.
We lack a long term historic perspective. As a result, several of us ar acting like Chicken Littles
That should read ” as we move from east to west” :-(
Cost of Tim Horton’s products have increased…
City Council wants to keep all the services and pay less ! The Chief wants to please everyone ! I am thinking there will be many other municipalities thinking this is a good idea…….should be interesting !
According to statcan the number of police, including federal, provincial, and municipal, was reduced slightly (1%) in 2011 over the previous year. 2012 figures are not out yet. Crime rates continued to drop. Costs went up slightly.
Kelowna has about 110 police per 100,000 while PG has about 145 police per 100,000.(based on the 109 force level and 75,000 population within city limits)
Still, Superintendent Stubbs is optimistic he wonât be left hanging if a financial need arises âCouncil has been very clear with me throughout this process, that they do not want the service level to decrease whatsoever, so thatâs what Iâm going to aim for.â
Really? REALLY? Can it get any worse?
Does our council and Superintendent not feel the shame our record has brought to our town?
The only thing stopping fricken marshal law in this city is one gang keeping another gang in check.
“Does our council and Superintendent not feel the shame our record has brought to our town?”
I am sure they do ….
If there were no market here for drugs, there would be no gangs.
However, a significant segment of our population has a lifestyle found more frequently in the west than in the east of Canada and in the north than in the south of Canada.
Police are not in as strong of a position to change lifestyles as Council and Administration are as well as the province. And one cannot do it without the help of the community.
Shifting some of the dollars from enforcement support to community support will likely make greater change. This is not an effort which can be effective by everyone staying in their own silos and stubbornly protecting their own methodology.
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