Council Approves Base Budget for RCMP, Puts Enhancements on Hold
Prince George, B.C.- It was a frank and alarming presentation by RCMP Superintendent Warren Brown to Prince George City Council.
In making his pitch to have Council approve an increase in the contracted numbers of officers, and boost the budget to add three more in 2016, RCMP Superintendent Warren Brown says Prince George is a victim of demographics of the area “We are the hub of the north and because we are, we attract people who will never show up in a census.”
Supt. Warren Brown says crime is up not only in Prince George but all across the province. “It seems the perception of crime in our city is acceptable, and I’m not willing to tolerate that and I do think that with some effort we can start to drive our crime rate down and not be the leader in B.C. for population for crime rates.”
“When we look at the volume of prisoners we house each year, Nanaimo housed 3100 prisoners, Kelowna, housed 5400 prisoners but that city’s population doubles every summer, Kamloops 3400 prisoners, surrey gets about 7 thousand but has a much larger population and about 700 officers. Last year, Prince George housed 4500, that is staggering considering our population and the number of police officers we have.”
Supt. Brown says there are challenges to ensure there are enough officers available to answer the volume of calls “We have a very high volume of overtime dollars just to make sure we have boots on the ground.” Last year, that overtime budget topped $1.4 million.
There have been four murders in Prince George this year, “We are a very violent community, and I’m not proud of that” said Supt. Brown. He says there are between 1,000 and 2,000 rifles that have been seized by police stored “ceiling to ground” at the detachment.
He pointed to an incident this year when three police vehicles were rammed by a suspect in another vehicle, “That was a $150 thousand dollar day for my detachment.” He says members are facing “violent crime on a daily basis.”
Then there is a matter of the health and well being of officers as they take on more and more overtime, with no opportunity to recoup those hours “Some members have over 1,000 hours of annual leave, but they simply aren’t able to take.”
On the positive side, Supt. Brown says there is a strong volunteer base and partnership with Northern Health has been positive.
Brown’s plan calls for three extra officers for next year, and two in each of the following two, plus an extra data processor to provide information to Crown Counsel.
While Councillor Jillian Merrick says she could not support the enhancement, Mayor Lyn Hall says what the City is paying in overtime could well cover off the cost of three new members. Instead of rejecting the request outright, Council has opted to approve the base budget, and deal with the requested enhancement at the December 2nd budget meeting.
It is estimated the addition of three officers would boost the tax levy by 0.54% and the addition of a data processor would add a further .08%
Comments
So what we needed all this time was to put the money from the new Museum the rcmp call home, and into 40 new rcmp.
So we build 2 high end cop shops for them and they want more? Maybe they should haven’t spent so much on each building?
Editor’s note:
The City of Prince George is responsible for providing a facility for the RCMP… It was the City that spent the money on the new detachment. Operations and capital expenses are two different things.
Between 1000 and 2000 fire arms seized sounds vague, so what is it 1 or 2? Thinking the RCMP are pricing themselves out of business in this region. Time for the City of Prince George to seriously look at alternatives. In addition there is little regard for community needs…………..just the dictates from Ottawa.
and how much was the projected tax increase this year? Bet it’s going to be higher, a lot higher than what has been suggested so far!
Crime is up, you call them and they show up five minutes after the crooks leave or don’t show up at all. yeah RCMP.
“Editor’s note:
The City of Prince George is responsible for providing a facility for the RCMP… It was the City that spent the money on the new detachment. Operations and capital expenses are two different things.”
And it was up to the city to keep the old RCMP building in good shape. They didn’t, and it cost the taxpayer big time.
Why are the RCMP storing seized rifles?
Time for the City of Prince George to seriously look at alternatives. In addition there is little regard for community needs…………..just the dictates from Ottawa.
Codger, I sense you are asking for a Municipal Police Force??
If so, be careful what you ask for…..the City hasn’t done a good job of negotiating wages, of late?? We will have 2 man cars and twice the costs we have now??
Throwing out a stat about how many rifles are seized doesn’t scare anyone. More than likely they were taken from law abiding citizens, as the RCMP doesn’t like civilians having firearms. They must be overjoyed now that Justin is PM.
“Operations and capital expenses are two different things”
Yes, both paid for out of City resident taxpayers. The money for the building is borrowed. The City has to pay it back. Not only the principle, but also the interest, which thankfully is a relatively low percentage.
How much per year do we have to pay off for the next 20 or 30 years? $1.5 million?
It all goes into the cost for policing.
This is actually a good example of how we often do not see the full cost of programs or projects. It is time we did some true cost accounting.
I agree with the notion that a less ostentatious building would have been less expensive and may have saved say $300,000/year in PI payments, which could have gone into the program part of operations.
On another note, why would PG be so unique as to draw people in from a wide region? Nanaimo, Kelowna and Kamloops are in much the same situation. Or, perhaps, the people living in their regional districts come to Prince George?
Remember, we have a regional police force and station here as well. They are house in a very nice building that is much more practical. Why are they not taking care of people who hail from outside of the City limits? Do they not have a crime fighting role? Exactly how, if at all, do they share the responsibility?
Perhaps we need to get some assistance from the Province because their provincial police force is not doing the job they should be doing. What are their staffing levels like and how many dollars per rural resident is their expense budget compared to the urban budgets?
I see this as a much more complex issue than most people think it is. Where is UBCM on this issue, if anywhere?
Well we do live in a sort of police state nowadays, a cop for everything you do, boating, quading, hunting, snowmobiling, skiing, biking, walking, farting, smoking, drinking, and the list goes on and on. I guess we just can’t look after ourselves so we have to have someone show us the way.
Police state? Good laugh, that one!
Police have always been understaffed, yet we bellyache their not catching texters, impaireds, thieves etc.
It would be great if they could do patrols of our neighborhoods and catch those fools in the act of committing crime, but they’re way too busy responding to calls.
Always understaffed and under budget, yet we good folks, all we can do is complain.
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