THUNDER BAY -- City police are in the red by less than one per cent for 2014 after a year that saw the force investigate 11 homicides.
Thunder Bay Police Service Chief J.P. Levesque reported a 0.985 per cent negative variance in the service’s operating budget to the police services board Tuesday morning at the Balmoral Street station.
Of the $36.5 million approved budget, the Police Service was over budget by about $350,000.
“It would have been nice to come in on budget. It’s pretty difficult given the year we had in terms of major investigations that are really resources intensive,” said Levesque.
“It leads to an awful lot of overtime.”
City police officers investigated 11 murders, a deceased infant and at least three suspicious deaths that were initially treated as major cases.
That led to $675,700 worth of overtime.
“I’m somewhat pleased (the variance) is only one per cent. Earlier in the year I thought it would be more,” said the chief.
Total labour costs were more than $1.36 million over budget and legal fees also ran higher than projected.
However, the police serviced received unexpected revenue of more than $1.46 million, most of which is provincial funding to increase courthouse security and enhance the cybercrime unit with extra personnel and equipment.
The cybercrime unit now has three full-time officers working with four supercomputers.
They previously only had two officers dedicated to the unit, but the Thunder Bay force received the funding under the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet.
Police services board chairwoman Jackie Dojack said that provincial funding was helpful in offsetting the overruns in other areas.
“The chief and his staff work very hard to minimize overtime costs and to keep in line those costs they can control, but always there are some things we can’t control,” she said.
