Waterloo region's police chief makes case for hiring new officers during budget presentation

The Waterloo Region Police Service is stretched so thin it's having a hard time solving crimes in a timely way, Chief Bryan Larkin said during a regional budget meeting Monday. 

The police service's clearance rate has been declining in recent years and is now below the provincial median, Larkin said. 

"If you're a victim of a financial crime in our region, wait time is now, depending on the threshold, anywhere from 12 months to 18 months before we can get to your case," Larkin said. 

He said the service has a "strong calibre" of investigators and blamed the declining clearance rate on the heavy workload officers are facing and a rise in violent crime in the region.

Larkin's discussion of the local clearance rate came as he pitched regional council on why the police service needs to raise its budget in 2022. 

The current police draft budget asks for an increase of about $12.3 million. That money would be used to hire another 35 officers and pay for other human resource pressures, such as the cost of benefits and contractual obligations. 

Larkin faced about an hour of questions from regional councillors during the budget presentation Monday. 

Coun. Sean Strickland said he supports the idea of hiring more frontline officers, but noted regional councillors are facing pressure from the community to spend less money on policing and more money on community services. He suggested the 35 officers could be brought in over a longer period of time to save money. 

Larkin agreed to bring the idea back to the police services board, but said it already takes about a year for new officers to be trained and fully deployed in the community. 

To delay adding more officers would put the community and the police service's workplace wellness and morale at risk, Larkin said. 

Diversion of mental health calls

Coun. Elizabeth Clarke raised the idea of saving money by reassigning some of the police workload to other kinds of service providers. 

She pointed to a pilot project out of Toronto where crisis workers are dispatched to mental health calls that don't involve violence or weapons. 

Larkin said he supported that idea. He estimated between 20 and 30 per cent of the mental health calls that come into regional police could be diverted if the province would fund this type of project locally. 

Larkin said he also thinks the province should make legislative changes that will allow other kinds of healthcare workers, like nurses and paramedics, to apprehend people under the Mental Health Act — a power that only police have at the moment. 

In response to questions from CBC K-W, the Ministry of the Solicitor General said Ontario is investing in mental health and crisis response programs, but didn't address the possibility of changes to the Mental Health Act. 

People in Waterloo region will have another opportunity to have their say on the regional budget at a public input meeting Dec. 8. 

Regional council can approve or reject the totality of the police budget, but cannot approve or disapprove specific items of that budget.

If council and the police services board can't reach an agreement, the matter will escalate to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.