Municipal
budget season is upon us and expenditures on protection – police and fire – are
some of the most important areas in which municipal tax dollars are spent. Municipal
police services have the responsibility of ensuring the security of residents,
businesses and visitors to their communities and the basic activities are crime
prevention, enforcement of laws, maintaining public order, assisting the
victims of crime as well as emergency services. Over the years, policing has become more
complex dealing with new types of criminal activity in the cyber age as well as
devoting more resources to social concerns.
One interesting
point of comparison for the five major northern Ontario cities is the number of
police officers per 100,000 of population and the trend in this number over
time. Figure 1 plots Statistics Canada
data on police officers per 100,000 for the period 2000 to 2016. In 2000, the largest number of police offers
adjusted for population was in Thunder Bay at 171.6, followed by Sault Ste
Marie at 156, Timmins at 153.1, North Bay at 147.6 and finally Greater Sudbury
at 143.1. By 2016, Thunder Bay was still
first at 199.5 officers per 100,000 of population. It was followed by Timmins at 196.2, Sault
Ste Marie at 176.7, Greater Sudbury at 160.7 and then North Bay at 152.6.
As Figure 2 illustrates, growth in per capita
policing numbers was greatest in Timmins at 28 percent, followed by Thunder Bay
which saw a 16 percent increases. Next
highest growth was Sault Ste Marie at 13 percent, followed by Greater Sudbury and North Bay at 12 and 3 percent respectively.
Another
point of comparison is spending. The BMA Municipal Reports provide some data on
the costs of providing policing services. The rankings for costs generally
parallel those for police numbers. When the net costs per 100,000 dollars of
assessment are compared (including amortization), in 2016 the highest cost was
in Timmins at $441 per $100,000 of tax assessment followed by Thunder Bay at
$434. Next was Sault Ste Marie at $402, then North Bay at $317 and finally
Greater Sudbury at $299. Naturally, this
ranking is influenced by the richness of the tax base and all other things
given cities with a weaker total tax base can expect costs of policing per
$100,000 of assessment to be higher. At
the same time, over the last decade, all five cities have seen a reduction in
the net costs pf policing per 100,000 dollars of assessment. This could be a function of growth in tax
bases as well as other efficiencies and economies.