City councillors didn’t defund Barrie police Monday, or even ask for a 2022 budget alternative with no funding increase.
That hard road was again avoided.
Instead, police will be asked that their 2022 budget identify funding to enable Barrie’s community and safety well-being plan, passed earlier this spring.
The plan is to identify risk factors which contribute to crime, victimization, addiction, drug overdoses and suicide, identify which factors the city will treat as a priority, identify actions to reduce the prioritized risk factors and set out measurable results these actions are intended to produce.
“At minimum, I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss an opportunity for them (Barrie Police Services Board) to be specifically asked to highlight how they are incorporating that community safety and well-being plan into their 2022 budget…how which funding received enables that plan,” said Coun. Ann-Marie Kungl.
Her motion will be considered for final approval June 14 by city council.
“I like the idea that general committee would provide direction to the police to say, show us. Show us how you’re spending those funds, tell us that you’ve thought about this in your budget request,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman, council’s representative on the police board, along with Coun. Robert Thomson.
“It (the plan) is all about the root causes of crime,” Lehman said. “I’ve always thought that Barrie police are part of the solution in addressing the root causes of crime. Absolutely it’s a service model that’s reactive, like every other emergency service, and we’re always going to need them to be on the other end of the phone.”
But two other motions concerning police spending next year failed.
One would request the police board prepare a budget with a zero per cent increase as an alternative to council’s two per cent cap and that the board identify how these funds comprise any potential budget increase beyond 2021’s spending, could be used to address the root causes of crime.
“I think if we are going to get to the root causes (of crime), I don’t think we can dismantle the police service that we have now, but we need to at some point start to re-direct and that’s what this motion is driving at,” said Coun. Clare Riepma. “We’re expecting to get something back at zero, we’re expecting to get something back at two (per cent), then we can see what the differences are.
“I’m looking to drive the police budget in a direction that looks at the root causes of crime.”
Coun. Keenan Aylwin said he supported the motion, if not all of the logic behind it.
“The reason that the police budget is, I guess you can say, the target here is because it’s an inherently reactive service,” he said. “What we’re trying to do by shifting the funding is to have a proactive model…that’s the heart of the conversation, that we want to get away from the reactive nature of policing.
“I don’t think there’s really such a thing as policing that gets at the root causes of crime. I haven’t seen it, and the root causes of crime are a lack of community, a lack of social services, lack of housing, adverse childhood experiences, and I just don’t believe that policing can accomplish getting at those things alone,” Aylwin said. “You need that full support system around someone to have that prevention in place.”
Coun. Jim Harris wanted to know about the metrics for measuring police performance and said the issue is quality of policing.
“If you want to take something and alter it, reduce its funding, you should have an idea what we’re trying to measure it by,” he said. “I’m concerned that using the police budget to do other things - in my experience much of what we’ve got on the list is critically important, I couldn’t agree more - but they’re covered by provincial ministries. They’re the responsibility of provincial ministries that really should be doing more to fund underfunded areas, like children’s mental health, like housing, like employment opportunities.
“You want less policing? I’m not hearing that in Ward 8, I can tell you that very clearly,” Harris said.
Councillors also defeated a motion Monday to amend next year’s business plan and budget directions, so that the city treasurer send Barrie Police Services board correspondence requesting it provide a 2022 budget that is a minimum 10 per cent lower than the net municipal funding provided to city police in 2021, as well as a line by-line accounting of the 2022 budget request.
Staff would also be directed to consult with the anti-racism task force, the affordable housing task force, the County of Simcoe and the broader community, and report back to councillors as part of the 2022 budget process, regarding expenditures that could enhance the resiliency in marginalized communities through the reallocation of the 10 per cent reduction in the police budget, including but not limited to potential investments in community-led alternatives to policing and the criminal justice system, anti-racism education, affordable housing, social and community services, skills training and employment counselling, and food security.
Aylwin continued to push defunding police, noting it’s the single largest cost in the city’s annual operating budget and increases annually, despite Barrie’s relatively low crime rates, but he received little support Monday.
“You cannot reduce the funding to the police service, a budget that is 97 per cent people, without expecting a substantial reduction in the number of people, until the alternatives are there in place,” Lehman said. “We will have a gap, we will not have the resources available in the community to respond to these types of calls.
“Investments in supportive housing, in alternative response for mental health calls, are just the starting point for where we can start to allow the police the ability to focus on crime and crime reduction, more than all the other things that they have been forced to do by the absence of alternative services,” he said. “The work needs to be done to build that capacity in the community.’
“I hope we will see at budget time some of those moves to build up those services,” Aylwin said.
Thomson has said he doesn’t support the 10 per cent reduction and says that can’t happen until there is greater capacity in these other services.
City police asked for and received $57.3 million in municipal funding this year, a 2.65 per cent or $1.48-million increase from 2020.
BPS has 244 officers and 118 civilians whose salaries and benefits take up 95.7 per cent of the police budget, and its 2021 budget includes no new hires.
Police calls for service are roughly 20 per cent criminal and 80 per cent non-criminal, 60 per cent non-emergency and 40 per cent emergency.
Councillors did approve a motion Monday to cap the 2022 tax-supported budget at a two per cent increase, which included its service partners, which include city police.
