Vancouver police cut major crime investigators
CBC News | Posted: November 21, 2014 6:04 PM | Last Updated: November 21, 2014
The Vancouver Police Department says its over-budget, and needs to cut jobs and redeploy officers
The Vancouver Police Department is making cuts and redeploying officers in a bid to stay within its proposed new budget.
Police Chief Jim Chu has told staff the costs of policing exceed the $220 million the department gets every year to deliver the service.
''Every unit is looked at within the department and like I said, these are not easy decisions" -Cst. Brian Montague, Vancouver Police
Chu sent out an e-mail to all staff this week, outlining a series of cuts and redeployments affecting sworn officers.
In the e-mail, Chu said 67 officer vacancies will go unfilled, but he notes 58 of those vacancies have been there for years — so the total number of jobs lost will be nine.
The VPD is reorganizing the officers who will be left, by cutting three officers from the dog-handling unit, 7 officers from the marine unit, and 12 officers from the major crime unit.
Fewer murders, bank robberies
Cst. Brian Montague — who speaks on behalf of Vancouver Police — says the department is responding to a declining number of homicides, and bank robberies.
"Every unit is looked at within the department and like I said, these are not easy decisions," Montague said.
The VPD has decided to assign more officers to patrol duties, and says the reassignments will occur early in the new year.