Defunding Barrie police remains a moving target.
Two attempts to reduce city funding to its police force were shot down by councillors during Monday night’s budget talks.
And while those talks continue tonight — to set 2021 property taxes and service levels — the message is clear so far.
A majority of councillors won’t defund police this year.
“In the middle of a global pandemic, with the pressures that are on the service already, and without the additional capacity in the alternate (social) service, that would not be appropriate to our city,” Mayor Jeff Lehman said. “I do not believe that is anywhere close to an acceptable situation in terms of what we would have to deal with in service provision to the public.”
In general terms, defunding the police means reallocating some policing costs toward mental health remedies, addiction treatment and social services while reframing the role of the police themselves — particularly in Black and Indigenous communities.
Deputy Mayor Barry Ward said the problem with defunding police this year is there’s no plan in place to spend money taken away from policing on social services.
“I’m a firm believer in that we have to really move toward a system away from enforcement and have a system of preventing crime in the first place,” he said. “It’s not just housing, it’s addiction treatment… about preventing people from being in a place where they’re going to commit the crimes in the first place, and it does save money.
“It makes so much more sense to prevent the cost in the first place," Ward added.
Councillors first dealt with a motion by Coun. Keenan Aylwin which asked the Barrie Police Services Board to reduce its tax supported requirement from the city by five per cent — or $2,864,639 — and report back on potential impacts.
And if that reduction could be reached, $2 million be allocated to the County of Simcoe and city and county staff work to determine how this funding can best support the Regional Housing First program and the Federal Rapid Housing Initiative projects to help end chronic homelessness in Simcoe County by 2025.
The $2 million would also be used, in conjunction with the county, for community and legal services to help those involved with the justice system. City staff would report back to councillors before the funding is committed with details on how the money would be allocated to ensure that it will benefit programs within Barrie
The remaining $864,639 would be used to reduce this year’s property tax increase in Barrie, which stood at 0.91 per cent after Monday night.
“We saw calls from the public to reallocate police funding to social services to address the root causes of crime,” Aylwin said. “We really need to rethink what public safety means in our community and how we care for people in our community.
“I hear the concerns of reducing police funding before we build upon these services, but I don’t see another funding source right now in front of us," he added.
“You’ve answered the why very eloquently, but… the how is the tough part,” Coun. Sergio Morales said of Aylwin’s motion.
“I am definitely not interested in reducing this budget by a dollar because of the state of our city right now,” Coun. Mike McCann said. “I’m going to support the police and I just think that your cause, which is valid, needs to be supported more by the province.”
Aylwin’s motion was defeated.
Councillors then voted on a motion by Coun. Clare Riepma that the Barrie Police Services Board be requested to reduce its funding request by $392,594 to take the overall increase to 1.95 per cent. Riepma noted the city’s service partners were asked to keep their budget increase to 1.95 per cent and city police wanted 2.65 per cent.
“We are all tightening our belts, in fact I think we’re tightening them very significantly and I think it is appropriate for us to ask our police force to do that same,” Riepma said. “I would be very interested in seeing what their budget would look like at 1.95 per cent as we requested. I suspect that it is possible for the police to find enough savings to do that.”
Coun. Robert Thomson, a member of the police services board, said it looked at 1.95 per cent.
“It really put the service, not in jeopardy, but we were unable to maintain the service that our residents have come to expect,” he said.
Barrie Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood told councillors that since 95.7 per cent of the police budget is for salaries and benefits, that’s where the axe would fall if the budget increased by just 1.95 per cent.
“We would be looking at an additional five members of our service that we wouldn’t be able to deploy at this time,” she said.
Lehman, who also sits on the police board, reminded councillors that while council decides how much money is to be spent on policing, police decide how that money is spent.
Riepma’s motion was defeated.
City police are asking for $57.3 million in municipal funding this year, a 2.65 per cent increase from 2020.
Barrie police has 244 officers and 118 civilians; their salaries, benefits and overtime will cost almost $52.8 million this year, a 2.4 percent increase from 2020. Salaries are 76 per cent of that total, benefits 23 per cent and overtime one per cent.
Police have a 2021 capital budget of almost $1.85 million — with 38 per cent for fleet (police vehicles), 24 per cent for information technology, 19 per cent for a radio system upgrade and radio equipment, 11 per cent for special equipment and eight per cent for body-worn cameras.
In 2019, city police officers dealt with 74,000 occurrences, made 7,052 arrests and lodged 3,113 prisoners.
Greenwood has said 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.
City police have their headquarters at 110 Fairview Rd., a training centre at 79 Bell Farm Rd. and a downtown office at 24 Maple Ave., in the Barrie Transit Terminal. The police facilities operating budget will be just more than $1 million this year.
