Police impound lot delayed, Luebke wants project axed

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This article was published 03/02/2024 (692 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A proposed impound lot for the Brandon Police Service is being pushed from this year to next — but one Brandon city councillor is threatening to cancel the project altogether and is calling for a reduction in the police service budget.

Currently, the city contracts impound duties to a private company. BPS is proposing to move those operations in-house as a means of raising revenue, but needs to develop an appropriate site.

With the city’s current towing and impound contract expiring on July 31, 2025, Brandon Police Service Acting Chief Randy Lewis said at Friday’s city council budget meeting that BPS is requesting the project be moved to next year. The project has a projected price tag of around $300,000.

Councillors Tyson Tame (Ward 10) and Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) asked what the impact of moving impound operations in-house would have on favourable towing contracts the city has for all its departments.

Luebke said he was told by the city’s current towing and impound contractor that across all departments, the city paid around $20,000 for those services last year and that costs would have been in the $100,000 neighbourhood under regular rates.

He expressed concern that the extra revenue BPS would see from its own impound lot might come at the expense of higher fees for the rest of the city.

Coun. Glen Parker (Ward 9) said it was premature to worry about extra costs before the contract is renegotiated.

If a lot is developed, Lewis said a security alarm system would be installed and a community cadet would be assigned to staff it — though he noted the cadet would not be redirected from downtown.

On a list of budget amendment motions presented later in the day, Luebke submitted a motion that would eliminate the impound lot project from the 2025 budget to be debated on the second day of deliberations.

Luebke also submitted a motion to reduce the police service budget by eliminating $270,000 proposed to go into police-related reserves.

In total, Lewis said the police are asking for around $366,000 more in funding from the city than they did last year.

This year, BPS is proposing to add five new officers, four support staff and two police cadets, which Lewis said would allow them to have more boots on the ground. That includes two new patrol constables, a traffic constable and two constables designated as part of Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis program (ARCC).

Lewis explained that the ARCC officers are trained to deal with people going through mental health difficulties and will be assisted by two trained support staff.

Parker asked why travel expenses are set to increase by $70,000 in this year’s budget, police board expenses doubling and overtime costs set to rise by $130,000 despite so many new staff being hired.

The acting chief said much of the increased overtime costs are based on the amount of extra overtime members of BPS’s major crime unit spent in 2023 attending to six homicides and other serious crimes.

“Every time we have one of those incidents, overtime goes up significantly,” Lewis said, adding that regular uniformed officers aren’t able to respond to those calls.

Around $65,000 of the travel funding is for two police officers being seconded to work with the Toba Centre for Children and Youth who will be travelling to and from Winnipeg. Those costs are being picked up by the province.

The other $5,000 is so that local officers can be sent to represent the BPS at police funerals across the country. Normally the department would try to absorb those costs elsewhere.

Speaking as a member of the police board, Coun. Shawn Berry (Ward 7) said not enough funds had been put aside last year to send representatives to an annual conference held in Newfoundland. He said he didn’t expect the police board to need all its budgeted increase to attend this year’s conference in Halifax.

Phase one of construction on the new detention cells at BPS headquarters is expected to be complete by March. A second phase creating a sallyport — a secure entryway — will be worked on after that and a funding extension until March 2025 has been granted by the province for it.

Paramedics being hired to assess detainees are expected to reduce the workload for officers who currently have to bring them to the emergency room at Brandon Regional Health Centre. These paramedics will also medically assess prisoners as they are released from custody.

Body-worn cameras are in this year’s budget, with $380,000 being added to the $20,000 put aside in previous years. Those won’t be purchased until after the province has finished its trial with a digital evidence management system since BPS will need to purchase cameras compatible with whatever solution is chosen at the provincial level. That trial is set to conclude this summer.

Since a budget was presented and approved by the Brandon Police Board in October, Lewis outlined the proposed changes since then — around $46,000 more in equipment and maintenance fees, an increase in projected parking revenue by $30,000 and a reduction in expected revenue from the impound lot by $50,000 because of the delay.

The parking revenue increase is based on improved revenues the city saw toward the end of 2023 after an additional bylaw enforcement officer had been hired.

This year’s budget for Brandon Fire and Emergency Services has funding for 16 additional paramedic positions, of which Chief Terry Parlow said 15 are being paid for through provincial funding announced last October, with the city paying for one additional position.

That provincial funding is also paying for a third ambulance to be operating within the city at any time and to staff positions at BPS detention cells.

For those positions, Parlow said five people have been hired and are being trained and he’s confident the rest will be filled shortly.

Even though calls for service and ambulance trips are continuing to increase year-over-year, Parlow said they’re expecting the additional personnel to contribute to a reduction in overtime costs.

In 2023, Parlow said BFES implemented an internal wellness committee to work on improving the physical and mental health of its staff.

According to Parlow, BFES saw 200 more calls for service than the previous year for a total of around 2,800.

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