Here’s a sensitive topic for all you law-and-order types in lockstep with Rob Ford’s cost-cutting obsessions: chief Bill Blair has formally signaled the cop shop will be undertaking a review to determine where costs can be cut.
That news came in an internal memo. And it has been leaked to the media smack dab in the middle of contract talks with the police union.
How the department can find anything but very modest savings without cutting the force complement is the tricky question.
Ninety percent of the police budget, which is approaching $1 billion, is for staff salaries and benefits.
The only way significant savings are going to be found is if new hires are put on hold indefinitely (200 some odd positions have already been deferred for 2010) and a huge bite is taken out of the 5,000 odd coppers on the payroll. That’s the bottom line. Police union head Mike McCormack says there’s a price to be paid for having the safest city in Canada. He’s right.
So to the question: should Toronto police cut cops to save money?
