Vancouver Police over spending by $10M due to protests, Hastings decampment: report

A recent report shows the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is over budget by more than $10 million.

A summary included in the report, presented to the Vancouver Police Board on Sept. 19, says at the end of the second fiscal quarter, in June, the VPD was over budget by 5.2 per cent or $10,722,123, and is projected to finish the year over budget by 1.6 per cent or $6,588,234.

Deputy Chief Const. Steve Rai says the overspending was mostly due to overtime and replacing equipment costs, including replacing body armour.

Rai attributes the overtime spent to policing protests related to the Israel-Hamas war, city staff asking the VPD to help with “Hastings Street cleaning,” policing the Stanley Cup playoff games, and backfilling vacancies.

Rai says if not for those duties, the department would be over budget by about $3.5 million instead.

Per the backfilling vacancies, the report explains, “Although the 100 new officers are hired, there is always vacancies due to natural attrition.”

The report says the trends for the end of the second quarter are projected to continue to the end of the year, already factoring in things like a mid-year benefit rate budget adjustment that the City of Vancouver has not paid yet, as well as the cost of helping with “Hastings Street cleaning,” and policing Vancouver beaches.

In May, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation requested $930,000 from the city to increase police presence during a project to allow alcohol consumption across seven beaches over the summer.

The proposal presented to council included 12 officers deployed for eight-hour shifts from May until August, costing the city $450,000.

Last year, the Vancouver Police Union announced that a new tentative agreement would make the city’s police officers the highest paid in Canada.

City Coun. Pete Fry tells CityNews that policing costs have increased in recent years at a rate that the city cannot keep up.

“Since I first got elected to council, we’ve seen the the overall police budget go from the high two-hundred-thousands to now well over 400,000. And it’s not sustainable: that level of growth year after year,” said Fry.

Fry says, despite likely knowing about the overtime spending as Police Board Chair, Mayor Ken Sim promised to cap the tax increase at 5.5 per cent for 2024.

“I think this is a salient piece of information that should have been shared at that time, because, frankly, we’re looking at probably a one per cent increase on our property tax to cover this, if that’s how it’s going to be paid for,” said Fry.

He says Vancouver residents will have to pay for the overspending, adding that Vancouver City Council will struggle to budget it given Sim’s increase cap.

Looking forward, the report said its projection for the end of the year could still change “due to extraordinary items such as, but not limited to, various protests and demonstrations, number of homicides, street disorder, gang conflict, officer wellness, and other unpredictable events.”