THUNDER BAY – If serious crime continues at the first quarter of 2016 rate, the Thunder Bay Police Service will once again exceed its annual budget.
Estimates released at Tuesday’s police board meeting showed a 0.78 per cent variance over budget, which amounts to about $300,000.
“It ‘s unfortunate to see that kind of projection in the first quarter,” said Thunder Bay Police chief J.P. Levesque.
“I haven’t seen that before but there are reasons for it. It’s a public safety issue.”
Levesque attributed the figure to unexpected overtime. While waiting for a lab to analyze forensic evidence in a late 2015 double homicide case, officers conducted undercover surveillance on a suspect for two weeks.
A similar surveillance situation unfurled in the case of an alleged serial robber in February.
Those costs compounded with two murders in January, another in March and three standoffs this quarter, the latest of which occurred the day before the quarterly variance was announced.
“We’ve had two (standoffs) and as of yesterday , three fairly significant standoffs that were protracted and lasted quite a while,” Levesque said.
“All of that has added to -- not an issue -- but an overage in our overtime already.”
