THUNDER BAY – City police are seeking about a one per cent increase in their proposed budget, which includes the purchase of a public safety drone to assist with searches and investigations.
The Thunder Bay Police Services Board on Tuesday morning was presented with the police’s combined $41.6 million operating and capital ask, which would amount to a nearly $265,000 increase from the previous year’s budget request.
Acting police chief Sylvie Hauth told the board it was a "fairly tight" budget but after the meeting said she wasn’t concerned about going into the red, which has been a frequent concern for the police service in recent years as it has struggled to find the line between having constrained spending while accounting for major incidents that drive up overtime costs. Last year’s final budget is currently estimated to come in at a surplus.
“I based it on what we were able to look at this year for numbers,” Hauth said.
“Quite a few of my variances this year were positive so I’m hoping that with the projection I’ve done based on the work that we did this year with the money we had and factoring a few other needs, that we’ll be able to be within those guidelines.”
The proposed operating budget of $40.7 million represents a nearly $390,000 – or one per cent – increase from the 2017 budget.
An overview provided by the police service calculated 90 per cent of the operational budget to be consumed by wages and benefits, with the current collective bargaining agreement awarding a two per cent wage increase this year.
The operating budget includes reductions of nearly $60,000 in savings that will come from the implementation of a new radio communication system later this year, as well as a $90,000 cut from hiring in-house legal counsel.
The $907,000 capital budget, which is about $125,000 less than 2017, includes the addition of a public safety drone to assist with missing person searches and investigations.
Hauth said police can currently utilize the OPP’s drone, but only if it is available. There have been instances where officers have resorted to using the fire department’s aerial ladders to take overhead photos of traffic collision reconstructions.
“It’s a tool that’s available within minutes and is deployed by one officer, as opposed to having to sometimes find 12 officers to do a grid search. It’s not replacing officers but it’s definitely adding a useful tool to our complement,” Hauth said.
“It’s the immediacy of being able to put it up in the air fairly quickly. Those machines are usually operational within a few minutes of unpacking and being able to go in all types of weather.”
Other new capital items are $50,000 for a new cybercrime forensics tool to remove and access information from the memory chip of cell phones, $50,000 for Next Generation 911 technology and $193,000 for computer system maintenance and procurement.
At $412,000, replacement of vehicles, body armour, firearms and other specialized equipment make up nearly half of the total capital budget.
“On a day-to-day basis, there are a number of items that we carry and use not only for our jobs but for the protection,” Hauth said. “A lot of the things we replace – body armour, cars, firearms – are on a cyclical basis to ensure every year we do a bit at a time so everybody remains compliant and everybody has adequate and safe equipment.”
The police budget will be presented to Thunder Bay city council at an upcoming deliberation meeting.
