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To make a significant dent in the police budget, Councillor Thompson says, you have to look at staffing. The police’s preliminary budget request for 2012 is $969-million and 84% of that are salaries and benefits.

“Obviously, some people will use the scare tactic that any cuts or adjustment to the police budget means that crime will be running rampant. That is such baloney, quite frankly,” said Mr. Thompson.

“Are you telling me that we can’t assess or make some determination [about deployment strength] to ensure this city is fully protected in terms of policing, while looking at the cost?”

Mariana Valverde, director of the centre for criminology and sociolegal studies at the University of Toronto, says tackling the police budget question does not need to be alarming.

Empirical studies show, says Ms. Valverde, that police officers spend most of their time doing paper work, not arresting people.

One way for a city to cut costs would be to have less expensive administrators do a police officer’s paper work.

“We do not need full-fledged officers who are trained in the use of force to go to my daughter’s elementary school to tell them how to cross the street safely. That is such a waste of money,” she said.

“But you can’t go around axing things from one day to the next. What you have to do is take a close look and put in some time to study the work process and work allocation, and come up with a rational plan.”

As budget chief during David Miller’s first term, David Soknacki knows well the political minefield that underlies the police budget. He says there wasn’t the political will to reduce the police budget during his tenure.

“It’s one thing to try evidenced-based politics, and then it’s another to face a crime victim,” said Mr. Soknacki.

“To say to people that for these sensible reasons we have to allocate our resources in a different place. They understand with their left brain, but their right brain is concerned when they hear about a drive-by shooting.”

National Post



