A group of HRM residents, businesses, and organizations have penned an open letter to Halifax regional council asking it to reject Halifax Regional Police’s request for an increase in its 2024-25 budget.
The Halifax Board of Police Commissioners approved the department’s request for 22 more officers at a cost of more than $4 million. As the Examiner reported in November, the board did make minor changes to the original request, taking two of the patrol officers from the 12 the department requested to work instead on community safety for a minimum of three years. The department also wants body-worn cameras.
The department’s total request for 2024-25 is $98,132,100, a 6.3% increase from the 2023-24 budget.
The open letter, which was sent to councillors on Monday, said the board of police commissioners has “recommended the full budget increase, acting against the Defunding the Police report, the Final Report of the Mass Casualty Commission, and the HRM’s own Public Safety Strategy.”
“One of the pillars of the Defunding the Police report, prepared by a sub-committee of the BoPC [Board of Police Commissioners] in 2022, was to improve public consultation processes,” the letter said.
The signatories of the letter were also critical of the public meetings the board hosted, writing “there have been many barriers to engagement.”
“The BoPC is in obvious violation of section six of their Policy Manual, which states that meetings must be accessible to the public; this inaccessibility renders this process, and the BoPC’s budget recommendation, illegitimate.”
From the open letter:
Despite requests, there was no ASL interpretation or live captioning, thus making meetings inaccessible to members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.
For those who have been directly traumatized by police, and for communities who are most vulnerable to policing, there were no accommodations made for their participation. This includes Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, people with mental illness, sex workers, unhoused people, people who use drugs, people who experience gender-based violence, and 2SLGBTQ+ people. This failure to accommodate is in direct contradiction to the recommendations of the Public Safety Strategy.
At the virtual consultation on October 25, stigmatizing language was used to refer to unhoused people. The Chair Becky Kent and Commissioners allowed these dehumanizinìg comments to continue.
At the in-person consultation on November 22, an early speaker was censored for being critical of the police. Their time was shortened due to interruptions from the Chair, and they were not allowed to speak of specific experiences with police. The previous speaker, who was in favor of the increase, was allowed to speak of specific positive experiences with police and was allowed to go over their allotted time. This double standard undermines the legitimacy of the public consultation process.
At the Board meeting on November 29, Commissioner Gavin Giles made disparaging remarks in reference to public consultation participants. Specifically, he said “I have not been attracted by any of the canned and banal presentations of the type we received last week and two weeks before that. Some of which have been really bizarre… nonsense and rubbish commentary designed only to titillate and annoy.” The BoPC accepted these comments. This demonstrates clear disregard for the public consultation process and community members.
Police budget request ‘just basically rubberstamped’
Nancy Hunter, one of the letter’s signatories, is the person mentioned in the letter. She gave a presentation to the board of police commissioners on Nov. 22 and her time to speak was cut short.
In an interview on Monday, Hunter said she and other signatories of the open letter are concerned that the board of police commissioners isn’t providing civilian oversight and isn’t critically analyzing the budget requests made by police.
“Also, we’re very concerned that, especially in these times we are really in a crisis in this city, of so many people struggling for the basics, that the police comes through and asks for a 6.3% increase, almost $6 million more, and it’s just basically rubberstamped,” Hunter said.
Hunter also repeated what she said at the Nov. 22, saying her views represented those of hundreds of others in the city:
These are not radical views. I know sometimes people bristle at the term ‘defunding the police’ but if you actually look at the [Defund the Police] report, and you look at things about resource allocation, who’s getting money and who’s not, what the police are doing in terms of jobs they shouldn’t be doing, how expensive the police are, how there is such a lack of accountability inside HRP and in the systems that are supposed to hold them accountable, I think very few people would disagree with any of these things.
The public meetings in October and November also included input from residents and businesses in downtown Dartmouth who were concerned about increase in violence that they attributed to residents of tent encampments in the area. Hunter said she would tell those residents and businesses “we have to start looking at what really keeps us safe” instead of increasing the money given to police.
“What we need to keep us housed, adequately housed, what we need to do so we’re not making choices between food and housing,” Hunter said.
“I think what we need are health services. And I think the answer that police are the answer to all of this is just not good, deep thinking.”
Hunter said the group that penned the letter was “pretty appalled” by the comments made by Commissioner Gavin Giles.
“This is supposed to be how democracy works and people are supposed to be encouraged to come forward with their views and not disparaged or insulted. All of this is appalling behaviour for a public democratic process for which he is a representative of,” Hunter said.
“No one on the board, not only didn’t seem to have a problem with it or stop it, but they just elected him vice-chair.”
Board’s decision ‘didn’t align’ with community needs
Dr. Jamie Livingston also signed the letter. He gave a presentation to the police board in October opposing the request for more money. At that virtual meeting, Livingston said the police’s proposal for an increase wasn’t aligned with recommendations in HRM’s Public Safety Strategy, the policing model transformation study, the defunding the police report, or the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report.
In an interview, Livingston said he was disappointed the police board didn’t seem to listen to members of the public who spoke in opposition to the budget increase. About 40 people showed up at the in-person meeting in November.
“It’s really clear that the municipality should be moving toward broadening the spectrum of services that respond to social needs in ways that don’t rely on the police,” Livingston said.
“I was really more frustrated that the police commissioners, their decision didn’t align with so many aspects going on in the community.”
Livingston said he was also “quite baffled” by the board’s decision to move two officers into the public safety office, which implements the public safety strategy.
“The public safety strategy is almost entirely focused on developing non-police alternatives for things like mental health crises and that sort of thing,” Livingston said.
“It’s very bizarre to me to assign two police officers to an office whose focus is on developing non-police alternatives. I expressed my concern to the board of police commissioners about that decision.”
Livingston said he’s “not very optimistic” about council taking the group’s letter into account when voting on the police budget increase.
“Although at the same time, I know council is looking at a pretty significant property tax increase and are hearing from their constituents about their concerns about that,” Livingston said.
“So, there may be some extra pressure that comes with that, and they’ll be more motivated to find ways to cut more expenditures.”
‘That there are so many people struggling now is not a fluke’
This is not the first time a group has written an open letter regarding approved increases to the police budget. In February 2022, a group of advocates, including Hunter, Livingston, and Dr. El Jones, penned a letter regarding the police board’s approval of a $2 million increase to the police budget.
While this current letter is now closed to more signatures, Hunter and Livingston are encouraging residents, businesses, and organizations to email their councillors about their concerns. Hunter said the group is also working on other plans and activities regarding its concerns about the increased police budget proposal.
“That there are so many people struggling now is not a fluke. I think people need to start demanding that our governments who say they can’t do things actually can do a lot of things in terms of health, and housing, and food,” Hunter said.
“And that we start demanding they do things differently and start talking to the people who know how to do this and start resourcing them. And start doing the things that people think are happening but are not.”
Here is the list of signatories to the open letter:
715 Individuals living in HRM
2 Crows Brewing Co
Adsum for Women & Children
All Together Link
Alteregos Cafe
Asaf Rashid Law
Birdies Bread Company
Black Market Boutique Ltd
Blue Collar Barbershop
Books Beyond Bars
Boyd’s Pharmasave
Bus Stop Theatre Co-op
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) Dalhousie
Cape and Cowl Comics and Collectibles
Centre For Art Tapes
Chaverim Kjipuktuk/Halifax Inclusive Jewish Community
Community Garden Kjipuktuk
Cool Down Nail Studio
Coverdale Justice Society
Cuts and Paste Gallery
Dee Dee’s Ice Cream
Edna Restaurant
Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia
Field Guide
Folklore Tattoo
Food Against Fascism
Gamma Rae Design
Gender Affirming Care Nova Scotia
Glitter Bean Cafe
Halifax Anarchist Bookfair
Halifax Dartmouth and District Labour Council
Isle at Ease
Justice for Workers Nova Scotia
King & North Chocolate
King’s Co-op Bookstore
Lemonade Stand Craft Shop
Little Cat’s Bazaar
Local Source Market
Lost and Found
Mask4Mask Queers
Matchstick Theatre
Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax – Festival of Working People and the Arts
MOSH Housing First
Moss Reporting Services
Mule Mother Books
North Brewing
North End Community Health Centre
North Node Bakery
Nova Scotia by Bike
One Block Barbershop
Outlaw Country Tattoo
PADS Community Network
Page1 Theatre
Ploughmans Lunch Bakery
Pride Beauty Lounge
Probably Theatre Collective
QRC Halifax (Queer Run Club)
Queer Climbs HFX
Radstorm
Ramblers Coffee Inc.
Seed & Spark Book Store Co-operative
Sexual Health Nova Scotia
Shaping Change Leadership Consulting
Spontaneity Improv School and Performance Company
Springhouse Market
St. Andrew’s United Church
Survivors for Change and Empowerment
Tart & Soul Cafe
Taylor Made
The Community Fridge Halifax
The Floatation Centre
The Has Bin
The King’s Food Security Initiative
The Loaded Ladle
The Loot Vintage
The Peoples Fridge
The Trainyard
The Youth Project
Trans Queer March HFX
Trident Booksellers & Cafe
Venus Envy
Vessel Meats
Wonder’neath Art Society