The Vancouver Police Department is making cuts and redeploying officers in a bid to stay within its proposed new budget.

Police Chief Jim Chu has told staff the costs of policing exceed the $220 million the department gets every year to deliver the service.

''Every unit is looked at within the department and like I said, these are not easy decisions" -Cst. Brian Montague, Vancouver Police

Chu sent out an e-mail to all staff this week, outlining a series of cuts and redeployments affecting sworn officers.

In the e-mail, Chu said 67 officer vacancies will go unfilled, but he notes 58 of those vacancies have been there for years — so the total number of jobs lost will be nine.

The VPD is reorganizing the officers who will be left, by cutting three officers from the dog-handling unit, 7 officers from the marine unit, and 12 officers from the major crime unit.

Fewer murders, bank robberies

Cst. Brian Montague — who speaks on behalf of Vancouver Police — says the department is responding to a declining number of homicides, and bank robberies.

"Every unit is looked at within the department and like I said, these are not easy decisions," Montague said.

The VPD has decided to assign more officers to patrol duties, and says the reassignments will occur early in the new year.

On mobile: click here to read the e-mail Chief Jim Chu sent to Vancouver Police officers