Halifax Regional Police want money for more officers, civilian investigators, and body worn cameras, although the board of police commissioners wants more details on the costs and evidence for those requests.
Halifax police acting chief Don MacLean presented the busines plan and operating framework for its 2024/25 budget at the Board of Police Commissioners Wednesday night. MacLean called the presentation “a high-level introductory discussion” of the budget.
MacLean said that collective agreements, as well as increasing costs for uniforms and equipment, would be factored into the budget.
“What $500,000 got you in ammunition five years ago does not get you that today,” MacLean said.
The budget includes requests for 18 more patrol officers, including several who will be trained to handle mental health calls, and six officers for communiity safety.
Two additional officers were requested for the police science program. This was a previous ask from the department. Those officers will run the police science program and train incoming cadets. There are no officers in that program now.
“We rob from patrol all the time to do things that I think are very important,” MacLean said.
The department wants to hire another officer who will be trained to investigate hate crimes. MacLean said as of Wednesday, the department surpassed the number of hate crimes reported in all of 2022.
“We know that’s going to go up. The current geopolitical environment is going to add to that even more,” MacLean said. “Nationally, this is a serious issue and I think we need to be sufficiently resourced.”
“HRM, according to the Greater Halifax Partnership, is the fastest growing municipality in Canada. We’re growing at a rate of approximately 4-5% a year, and the reality is we’re bringing in a lot of people from diverse backgrounds and all these other issues. The unfortunately reality to that is these issues become more prevelant and we have both a legal and a moral obligation to make sure we’re doing this right.”
The department also wants to hire two civilian investigators who can take care of background investigations, as well as the security clearances that are now being used in place of polygraphs. HRP stopped using polygraph testing for new hires in 2022. MacLean called the current security clearances “comprehensive” and include background checks, social media checks, and interviews.
He said the current security clearance unit consists of one sergeant, one constable, plus another officer seconded from patrol.
The budget also includes a request for another employee assistance program (EAP) officer. MacLean said EAP requests have doubled within the last year.
Body worn cameras back on the budget
The latest budget included a request for body worn videos. Halifax police made a request for those videos to the board in December 2020, and funding was allocated in the 2021/22 budget to hire a person on 12-month term. However, the department never hired someone for that role, so MacLean said work on the body-worn video project hasn’t moved ahead.
“It’s important the board give some direction as to where they see this program going in the future,” MacLean said.
‘That’s a significant ask’
While MacLean said the budget presentation was high-level, its contents appeared to be too high level for the some of the board’s commissioners.
Commissioner Yemi Akindoju, who is an accountant, said he wanted more details to help the board decide where the department is now and where it needs to be.
“I don’t think the information we have in front of us has given me the confidence to say we can proceed and advise, because today you may be wanting to talk to provide directions to cost items. I don’t have enough information to provide that kind of direction,” Akindoju said.
“The budget is about facts and figures, and I don’t see that in all this. It’s hard for me to wrap myself around where we are going with this.”
Commissioner Harry Critchley, meanwhile, said every year, the board gets feedback from the public who don’t understand the rationale behind the budget or the evidence in support of the department’s requests. Critchley said the board has an obligation to ensure the entire budget is in keeping with the board’s duties in ensuring policing is in line with the community’s values.
“We need to have a greater understanding of what was the evidence, what were the deliberations that went into the proposal,” Critchley said. “You have this information and I don’t… I’d like that information to be presented in a readily comprehensible way, so that I and members of the public, who we are the conduit for, understand that.”
Critchley called the requests for new officers “significant.”
“On my tally, it’s 24 full-time equivalent positions. That’s a significant ask,” Critchley said. “That’s, as far as I can tell, the most significant ask that’s been requested in the last four or five years.”
HRM CFO Jerry Blackwood said the board can put motions forth to request more details and costs on information in Wednesday’s preliminary presentation.
New police headquarters
Board chair Becky Kent shared Critchley’s concerns that they needed information to share with the public so they can better explain their decisions.
“I don’t feel like it’s our job to micromanage those pieces. Our job is to say, ‘yes, that meets our strategic priorities, it meets yours, it meets the ones we’re hearing from our community, which we have,” Kent said.
“I think it’s important that you hear from us today that we’d like in another upscaled version of what you come back with, so when we go to council, when we make a recommendation to council, and the public hears and sees it, that we can justify it, we can defend it, we can say, ‘yeah, these are the reasons we put this forward.'”
Kent and Akindoju also wanted to push the new headquarters in the budget.
Blackwood said John MacPherson would do a presentation to the board on a 2018 study regarding the new headquarters. He said a lot has changed since that report was published, so a presentation would include any updates.
But Blackwood noted there is no land where a new headquarters can be built.
“Right now, that’s not on the table,” Blackwood said.
Kent said finding the land should be a priority.
“As chair of this board, I am putting you on notice that it’s time to dust that off and move it forward,” Kent said. “The land is 100% the first step. And if we keep putting off and not putting something in the budget for it, it won’t happen.”
Kent moved to direct HRP to cost the items listed in the 2024/25 budget, as well as the cost and evidence to support the hiring of a coordinator for the body-worn camera project. That motion was carried.
Discussions on the budget will continue at the board’s next meeting, which will be virtual, on Oct. 25. That meeting will include time for public feedback.
The information requested in Wednesday’s motion will be available at the board’s meeting on Nov. 15.
They cops already suck up 10% of the city budget and provide nothing in return but yeah, sure, more money for them. ACAB.