Acting chief questioned on police overtime

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This article was published 09/12/2023 (1024 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the acting police chief was happy to share the news of an expected budget surplus of $139,233 at Friday’s police board meeting, the board had questions about the increased overtime budget projection despite the force spending money on a cadet program to help reduce those costs.

Police board member Coun. Shawn Berry questioned acting police chief Randy Lewis about the force’s overtime salary budget during Lewis’s budget presentation to the board during the meeting. Earlier this year, BPS hired four community cadets to help relieve police officers of time-consuming duties that contributed to increased overtime costs.

The overtime salary budget for 2023 for BPS was $472,000 and the current budget projection for the year is well over that, at $722,000.

At a city council meeting last month, police board chair Deb Arpin told council that the cadet program has been “very successful” since it was launched this summer and that the board was looking to expand the program in this year’s municipal budget deliberations.

“Is there a reason why we have so much overtime when we have all of these other additions and now we’re still seeing more overtime than we’ve seen before?” Berry asked.

Lewis said the cadets had only started in July and that while they are helping with time-consuming police tasks like court remands, officers are still spread thin. He said the six homicides this year have required more police resources as well as tactical team callouts, though he couldn’t provide a number for how many tactical deployments occurred this year.

Jeff Fawcett, who also sits on the board, noted that methamphetatmine trafficking charges decreased by 32 per cent from 2022, while possession of meth charges increased by 17 per cent. Fawcett emphasized that BPS should prioritize meth traffickers in the community rather than those possessing meth for personal use.

Lewis acknowledged the priority and said the fewer trafficking charges were a result of project efforts that take longer to complete. He said police were “not in the business of targeting those that suffer from addiction.”

Other notable highlights from the meeting include:

• Arpin was re-elected as police board chair for 2024. Berry was elected as vice-chair of the board.

• BPS will make a motion to city council to waive the fingerprint fee for residential school survivors changing their names as part of a provincial effort this summer to help residential school survivors reclaim their traditional names.

• BPS says work on the new detention centre at police headquarters is progressing well. They hope that by the end of February, the cells will be usable.

• BPS intends to run a ride check program for the holiday season and will let the public know when ride checks are expected to take place this month.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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