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Violent crime has assaulted the police budget in 2014

THUNDER BAY -- The city’s police chief is looking for more cushion in next year’s budget after a high number of violent crimes hemorrhaged their books.
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Thunder Bay Police Service chief J.P. Levesque speaks to local media following Tuesday morning’s police service board meeting. The local police force is expected to run more than $500,000 over budget by the end of the year thanks in large part to overtime associated with violent crime. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- The city’s police chief is looking for more cushion in next year’s budget after a high number of violent crimes hemorrhaged their books.

The Thunder Bay Police Service Board was presented with the 2014 fourth quarter variance report, which is projecting an overrun of more than $530,000 by the end of the year, during their monthly meeting Tuesday at the Balmoral Street station.

That represents a 1.45 per cent negative variance from the $36.5 million operating budget.

The majority of the excess spending, about $300,000, is as a result of overtime costs primarily as a result of 20 major case investigations so far this year.

“It’s been well reported we’ve had 10 homicides to date which is a large part of it,” J.P. Levesque told local media following the meeting.

“We’ve also had a large number of other occurrences that are not necessarily homicides that have taken a large number of resources.
They’ve also taken a toll on our people as well.”

Those include at least three suspicious deaths, as well as a lengthy investigation into the body of a deceased infant found in May.

Last period’s projection was forecasting an overrun of 1.6 per cent, which prompted the police to place strict restrictions on overtime and discretionary purchases.

New board chair Jackie Dojack, who was appointed at the meeting, acknowledged the unpredictable nature of the extra costs.

“The overtime budget is always something that would be nice to predict but it seems to be very difficult to predict,” she said.

In hopes of preventing another unbalanced budget, Levesque presented the board with the tentative 2015 budget which is seeking a 1.5 per cent increase to the operating budget, looking for $37.05 million.

“With that increase we’re able to shore up a couple of accounts that have historically led us into a negative variance,” he said, identifying the labour and legal accounts. 

Labour costs represent the majority of the budget, which are pegged at $38.35 million. The police are also looking for $3.6 million in material costs while they are projecting about $5 million in revenue.

The budget also earmarks the necessary funds for the force to reinstate a fifth inspector position, which had been cut for 2014 as part of a planned amalgamation of the corporate and court services departments.

That hasn’t been an ideal solution, especially with a big change on the horizon at the courthouse.

“We’re finding though the workload was far more than we anticipated,” he said. “We’re in negotiations with the province for electronic disclosure, which is a huge project. We want to ensure when that finally does come into existence we have somebody with rank who’s able to lead.”

The force is receiving some relief from the province with their court security, as an extra $251,000 is being provided to help reduce some of those costs.

While it is short of completely offsetting the costs, Levesque is anticipating another increase next year which would almost allow the police to break even on it.

The proposed capital budget was reduced by a little more than $215,000 compared to 2014, with one time upgrades that include the telephone system. Over two years the savings from the telephone system are expected to compensate for the installation.

The budget was accepted by the board and will now go before city council in the new year.


 





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