Police must work to lower costs for municipalities

Obscenely high and unsustainable policing costs. OPP bills are destroying communities its officers are supposed to protect. Apparent self-interest is cloaked in the guise of public safety needs. Where is the political outrage while OPP costs continue to climb? Who is going to bring policing costs in this province under control?

Police must work to lower costs for municipalities

Postby Thomas » Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:53 am

TORONTO - Runaway policing costs are forcing municipalities to hike property taxes and cast around for different ways to deliver programs to small towns.

The cost of OPP salaries has skyrocketed over the past decade, putting enormous stress on cash-strapped municipalities that don’t have large corporate tax bases to draw upon to pay for them.

It was one of the hottest issues at this week’s meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO).

The province’s police chiefs were surprisingly chippy in their opposition to AMO’s pleas to hold the line on police salaries, posting scrappy Tweets challenging AMO’s views.

Here’s an example from @OACPOfficial:

Chief John Hagarty @jhagarty
Message to Police Boards "We have to change the discussion to what is the value of policing, and stop talking about costs" #CAPG2014

“Hey @OAPSB @AMOPolicy MT @jhagarty: “We have 2 change discussion 2 what is the value of policing, and stop talking about costs.”


That’s an interesting thought. But if you’re a municipality and you could once afford policing but now can’t because cop salaries have gone up 10%, the logical thing to do is to look at police salaries as being the reason why you can’t afford the type of policing you want.

Some telling numbers from AMO paint a grim picture: In 2011, Ontarians spent $320 per capita on policing.

That’s about $35 more than Albertans, $56 more than B.C. and $24 more than Quebec.

The OPP wage increase of 13.55% over four years, with a massive 8.55% hike this year, is causing grief for taxpayers.

The 2014 wage increase alone will add $25 million to property taxes.

Small towns just can’t pay, says AMO’s executive director.

“In half of Ontario’s 444 municipal governments, a 1% tax increase yields about $50,000,” Pat Vanini said in a phone interview.

“That OPP salary increase is going to those same municipalities across the province,” she said.

With only a small tax base to start with, those ratepayers are getting slammed with 8-10% tax hikes.

Emergency services personnel aren’t allowed to strike, so their contracts are arbitrated — and arbitrators don’t take into account a municipality’s ability to pay.

That has to change, she says.

Vanini wants to find different ways to deliver police services, with civilian staff taking non-urgent reports and other innovations.

“If you’re living in northern Ontario and your barbecue has gone missing from your back porch, you could call it in or go online and report it,” she said.

Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police executive director Ron Bain says most police chiefs agree with alternate delivery models.

“I would say the vast majority of police leaders in this province agree with that,” he said in a phone interview.

He wants a change in police funding that takes costs off the property tax base.

“All along, OACP’s position is that we have to switch the channel from just this focus on the so-called high cost of policing and the burden on taxpayers to a discussion of what it is you want your police service and your police officers to be doing,” he said.

“Once you determine that, then you can set that and fund it appropriately and sustainably.

“For many of the AMO members, it’s all about costs,” he said.

“They don’t want to have a serious discussion about two other components — what is it you want your police services to be doing. Isn’t the real issue that we have a broken funding model in this province and no one wants to talk about that?”

That’s not the union speaking. That’s the chiefs.

An OPP officer with three years on the job now makes $92,000.

The Ontario Provincial Police Association ran costly ads slamming PC leader Tim Hudak in the last election.

Will that make it difficult for Premier Kathleen Wynne to hold the line on further OPP pay hikes?

Or will the free-spending policies of her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, come home to roost?

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/21/po ... cipalities
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