Toronto police board approves $30M budget increase for 2019
Posted January 24, 2019 6:00 pm.
Last Updated January 25, 2019 7:51 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Toronto Police Services Board has unanimously approved the a $1.026-billion operating budget for 2019.
The budget request represents a $30-million increase over 2018.
Police Chief Mark Saunders says the money is needed to hire more than 300 new uniformed police officers and 122 special constables along with continuing to modernize the police service.
“Do I think we need more resources out on the front line, yes we do. And we’re moving towards that,” Saunders said following the meeting.
“We have new pressures when it comes to crime. When we talk about some of the fraudulent occurrences, when we talk about cyber bullying and a whole host of other entities within the criminal stratosphere that has harm on people, we need to make sure that we have the right resources in place to reduce that.”
Saunders also noted that the billion dollar price tag does not include what he calls the ‘unknown unknowns’ of legalized pot but that any incremental costs related to the service’s responsibilities will be offset.
The budget still needs the final approval from city council.
CORRECTION: This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly said the budget was $1.26 billion
