Coun. Keenan Aylwin has called out Barrie city police about their priorities in a recent tweet.
“Barrie police are making a very compelling case for defunding the police this week,” the Ward 2 councillor said Wednesday on Twitter. “First, going after a person who stole baby formula in the midst of a global pandemic.
“And second, two officers assigned to the case of the missing hockey sweater.”
In general terms, defunding police means reallocating some police funding toward mental health remedies, addiction treatment and social services while re-framing the role of the police themselves — particularly in Black and Indigenous communities.
The first police tweet Aylwin referenced to is about a male wanted for stealing baby formula from Shoppers Drug Mart at 420 Essa Rd., on Dec. 30. The second tweet is about an occurrence which began outside Barrie; police are asking for the public’s help to locate a stolen red and white signed Team Canada Sidney Crosby jersey. E-mail contact information for two city police officers is part of the release.
Barrie Police are making a very compelling case for Defunding the Police this week:
— Keenan Aylwin (@KeenanAylwin) January 5, 2022
First, going after a person who stole baby formula in the midst of a global pandemic.
And second, TWO officers assigned to the case of the missing hockey jersey.#Barrie #DefundThePolice pic.twitter.com/aWWLn84gbD
Barrie Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood criticized Aylwin’s remarks.
“Coun. Aylwin, through this Twitter post, not only shows an insensitivity towards victims of crime, but he also made ill-informed assumptions about these offences and how criminal investigations are conducted,” she told BarrieToday. “This undermines our investigators and is inconsiderate and unsympathetic to those who are impacted by crime in our community.”
Since the original story was first published Thursday afternoon, Aylwin asked to comment on the chief's remarks.
"Of course I am sympathetic to those who are impacted by crime. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous and deflects from the issues at hand," he said. "My comments were about the issue of finite resources and how best we could put those resources towards preventing crime in the first place, rather than taking a reactive approach.
"I would hope that we could all engage in a good-faith conversation about resourcing, budget priorities, and crime prevention rather than misrepresenting comments in the media," Aylwin added.
Mayor Jeff Lehman, who sits on the Barrie Police Services Board, wasn’t impressed with Aylwin’s Twitter comments, either.
“This tweet is inappropriate,” he said. “The police can’t and shouldn’t ignore a break-and-enter and theft from a home, and in any event, the (City of Barrie’s) Code of Conduct requires councillors to refrain from interfering in the independent administration of justice.
“If Coun. Aylwin has concerns, he should come to a police board meeting and raise them," the mayor added.
Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon said public contact is part of police work.
“We appreciate the public concern regarding occurrences that we post to social media,” he said. “Our investigators deal with multiple cases at a time, depending on workload, investigative requirements and shift schedules, and at any time that a decision is made to reach out to the public for assistance it is done in the best interest of the investigation, and those involved.”
This is not the first time Aylwin has supported defunding city police.
Last May and June, Barrie councillors debated and defeated his motion to provide a 2022 police budget 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 this year’s police budget request.
In December, city council approved the 2022 operating and capital budget, along with its 2.92 per cent property tax increase, without touching or even substantially debating this year’s police budget — a 2.88 per cent increase to $58.9 million from city taxpayers.
Aylwin said at the time he didn’t support the police spending, but was not going to try to change it during budget talks.
“I have repeatedly moved motions and amendments to reallocate Barrie police funding to social services and housing to address the root causes of crime,” he told BarrieToday on Thursday. “Unfortunately, city council has not supported this approach to crime prevention.
“For the 2022 budget direction report, I moved a motion to direct the Barrie police to reduce their budget by 10 per cent to invest in our community and help prevent crime before it happens. This motion did not pass," he added.
Aylwin, who is in his first term as the downtown councillor, said council needs to look at policing a different way.
“The reality is that police show up after a crime has already been committed,” he said. “We should shift our spending priorities to preventative measures that ensure that people in our community have what they need to survive and live a life of dignity. This can help prevent crime in the first place and can reduce the need for reactive policing.
“Our criminal-legal system disproportionately harms Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour who are over-incarcerated and over-policed,” Aylwin said. “We need to re-imagine what community safety looks like and invest in housing, social services and other social supports to create the conditions where people have their needs met and don’t resort to crime for survival.”
Coun. Robert Thomson, who sits on the police services board, has pointed to the budget allocator, which annually asks city residents how they’d like their property taxes spent, or not spent. The latest results were 64.48 per cent of respondents wanting to increase police spending by five per cent, 16.35 per cent wanting to maintain spending at its current level and 19.15 per cent wanting to decrease spending by five per cent.
