Toronto police still aren’t over the city’s proposed budget that would slash nearly $13 million dollars from what they originally asked for.
That could explain why this week, the force shared some figures with the public.
“Did you know Toronto has only 37 more police officers than in 1999, despite population growth of more than 600,000 and a 35% increase in emergency calls,” TPS tweeted on Monday.
It also claimed that for every 600 Torontonians, there’s only one cop.
Toronto Police Association also got into the mix and said that since 2010, Toronto has grown by 460,000 people with officers unable to keep up.
“That’s a 13% increase in population, while the number of [Toronto police officers]
has declined by almost 600 Officers. Our current staffing levels are unacceptable. The current level of policing does NOT meet the city’s safety needs,” the association tweeted.
NEW PROPOSED BUDGET ISN’T CUTTING IT
This month, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw wasn’t impressed with the possibility of having a $12.6 million cut from the force’s requested budget.
According to him, this would slow police response times and impact public safety which would create “unacceptable risk.”
Demkiw shared that to date, police response times when responding to priority calls now sit at 22 minutes.
Still, the city says that if the force can’t come up with the money, they stand on its promise to help enforcement hire 200 new officers.
WHAT HAPPENED TO PREVIOUS INCREASES IN POLICE BUDGET?
Toronto police say that hiring freezes and four zero per cent budget increases over the past decade have impacted services which to them is not OK.
It also says that as the population continues to grow and calls for service continue to increase the force has fewer officers and cars available to respond.
Since sharing these figures, Toronto residents have weighed in.
Some residents believe it is only fair that if police want to talk about the decline in officers, then surely everything else should be put on the table.
This includes where the force’s budget increases in previous years went if it wasn’t to have more officers patrolling the streets keeping Torontonians safe?
“The Toronto Police Service budget in 1999 was $535.9 million. This year, Chief Demkiw has asked for $1.186 billion and suggested grim consequences if the service isn’t awarded every penny. The budget increased by $650M since 1999 and we only have 37 more cops!?!,” one user asked.
“So what you’re saying is, you’ve been doing nothing with those annual budget increases meant to hire more staff,” someone else said.
“We really need to know where the money went,” another person chimed in.
Others even called for the city to defund the police and fund communities instead.
