Greater Sudbury Police Service appears poised to hire an additional 26 staff members by the end of 2025.
This boost in staff includes 16 hires proposed for 2024 and an additional 10 in 2025, contributing toward the respective years’ budget increases of 10.66 per cent and 6.92 per cent.
(The GSPS board is currently in budget deliberations for both the 2024 and 2025 budgets, with the city having recently adopted multi-year budgeting)
Although no final decisions have been made, none of the five members who make up the police board expressed any objections to the proposed new hires during their Oct. 30 meeting.
The only debate regarding the new positions was whether to delay some of the 2024 hires to either July or the following year to save some money.
These measures would join other options presented on Oct. 30 to help whittle the 2024 budget increase down to 8.41 per cent.
However, Pedersen clarified near the start of the meeting that he was pushing for the full budget hike of more than 18 per cent over the 2024/25 budget years.
“It isn’t a bloated budget,” he said, describing the GSPS increase requests as being what the board should approve, “at minimum.”
“The budget that I presented last week was what I believe is necessary to provide adequate and effective policing in this community based on the needs of the community,” he said, later clarifying that any cuts from the initial request of GSPS are not agreed to or approved by him.
“I believe the 10.66 (per cent increase in 2024) is the budget that will hit your needs, our needs and the community’s needs,” he later added.
Following the GSPS plan, the proposed staff members include the following additions in 2024:
- One equity diversity inclusion strategist
- One communications infrastructure technology programmer
- One digital evidence processor
- One internal communications strategist
- Two forensic specialists
- 10 constables (discussed during last year’s budget talks as part of a three-year, 24-member boost by 2025)
The following staff members would be hired in 2025:
- Four constables (discussed during last year’s budget talks as part of a three-year, 24-member boost by 2025)
- Six constables, including three specializing in drugs and three in sexual assaults
GSPS initiated a three-year mission to hire 24 additional sworn members with 10 members added this year, 10 slated for next year, and the final four to be hired in 2025.
The proposed 2024/25 budget includes an additional six sworn members to be added in 2025, plus several civilian members in 2024, every one of whom Pedersen described as needed.
The initial boost of 24 sworn members “was to address the gaps that we’re seeing in our profession,” he said, with such things as mental health concerns pulling members away from the front lines.
“What our profession is seeing is new growth, we’re seeing new crimes, we’re seeing new violent crimes, we’re seeing new need for technological advances,” he said, adding that police need more forensic specialists to augment sworn staff and keep them at the front lines.
Similar cases were made for the other new proposed positions within the 2024/25 budget, with board member Gerry Lougheed reiterating his previous advocacy for the equity diversity inclusion strategist
“I think culturally and in the contemporary society we live in today, if there’s something that shouldn’t be in the reduction category, it’s definitely this position,” he said during the Oct. 30 meeting. “I think we’re in an age where people expect objectivity and very much well-educated people giving us direction on (equity, diversity and inclusion).”
Pedersen’s presentation on Oct. 30 outlined a handful of measures to pare the proposed 2024 budget from a 10.66 per cent increase down to 8.41 per cent if all the steps were taken.
He argued against each one of the measures, but presented them per the board’s request. They included:
- Cancel this year’s $500,000 boost in an annual facilities reserve contribution for new GSPS headquarters
- Factor in less inflation ( $97,000) on operating accounts
- Reduce the amount of budgeted overtime by almost $400,000
- Limit training to what Pedersen described as “basic .. treading the water training” by cutting $200,000
- Do less outreach recruiting ($26,000 cut)
- Delay hiring the two forensic specialists to 2025 (to cut $212,500)
- Delay some other hires until July 2024 (to cut $203,000)
Some of these options will be presented to the board during their Nov. 1 public budget meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
The Nov. 1 meeting will take place in room C-12 at Tom Davies Square, and can be viewed in-person or by Zoom:
- https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81181879583?pwd=Y1hVenZtNXZ0d2lkOXFrdEJIOENGZz09
- Meeting ID: 811 8187 9583
- Passcode: 444663
By the close of the Nov. 1 meeting, the board is anticipated to finalize their 2024/25 budget, which Pedersen will then present to city council on Nov. 15.
From what was presented during their Oct. 30 meeting, it appears unlikely the board will reach city council’s mandate of limiting their 2024 and 2025 increases to 4.7 per cent each year.
“We’re hearing, as councillors, every day, more and more requests for more police presence and quicker responses to some of the issues they’re dealing with,” Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer told Sudbury.com after the Oct. 30 meeting.
Sizer, who also serves as chair of the police board, added that there’s increasing complexity in police work and growing community needs which contribute toward the need for more staff.
“Policing in the community, and across the province and probably across Canada, has changed so vastly, even in the last five years,” he said. “Those costs are there, and we have to meet them.”
The current authorized staffing complement at GSPS is 423 members, including 283 sworn members and 140 civilian employees.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
