Regional residents weigh in on proposed police budget during 2nd public input session

The Waterloo Regional Police Service's budget for 2025 is $253 million dollars, an increase of almost $24 million from this year, and Harald Drewitz of Kitchener says that's concerning to him.

Drewitz was one of six people who spoke Monday evening at a community input session into the 2025 police budget. A similar meeting was held in late September. 

Drewitz, who is part of Kitchener's Tax Watch Group, has spoken at similar meetings over the last 10 years. 

"I keep myself informed as to what's going on with policing in the community, so I have some understanding of the complexities and I totally get it, " he said during Monday night's meeting.

"But I am as concerned with the people in my group as they are with the taxpayer's ability to pay. It didn't hit us in 2024 but at some point in time, it's going to hit us and hit us hard."

This year, the police services board passed an operating budget of $253 million at its Oct. 16 meeting. The budget includes an almost $24 million increase, or 10.84 per cent, from 2024, making it the largest proposed WRPS budget in history. 

If passed by regional council, residents would see an increase of roughly $70 (8.94 per cent) on the police portion of the property tax bill. In total for the year, that would amount to almost $850. 

According to the police board, the increased funding would accommodate adjusted salaries, benefits, technology investments, reserve contributions, and staffing expansion. 

That includes the hiring of 18 new officers, in line with WRPS's recruitment plan to hire 55 officers by 2025. 

Drewitz also questioned the process of including salaries of future officers while brushing over the ones ending their careers.

"Chances are that at least half, if not more, of the 18 that you put in the budget as additional will be just replacing retirees and so on," he said. 

Resident Melissa Bowman also used her five minutes of allotted time to share her thoughts on the proposed budget increase.

"A paper recently published in Canadian Public Policy found no clear relationship between higher police budgets and crime, and no association between increasing spending and reducing crime rates," Bowman explained. 

She added the report reinforced the need to further explore the role and function of police in our society rather than giving the force more money. 

Bowman noted that budget season should be a time to consider how best to keep the community safe and look at preventative measures to reduce crime, but said that notion often gets lost when it's time to talk numbers. 

"Too often, when questions are asked about the police budget or the potential for alternative models, it is assumed to be an attack on our local police force," she said, noting during previous budget discussions, a regional councillor said to attack the police budget was to attack the morale of officers.

"It's unfortunate that what could be an opportunity for real discussion about community safety is blocked by such criticism," she said. "We need to recognize that we can't police our way out of every problem. Our regional budget should reflect that."