Hamilton Police Board Wants More Savings, Surly Hamiltonian Says Cut the Mounted Unit

Good for the Hamilton Police Board for asking the Hamilton Police to go back and look for savings. The Spec has the story here. Noteworthy numbers:

"The board voted — five for, one against — Monday to table it after a one-hour discussion about the $158-million budget, which is approximately $4.3 million more than in 2014 and represents a 2.95 per cent increase. The portion council is being asked to allocate is about $148.9 million because the police expect to raise more than $9 million through provincial grants and fees."

I would be curious to know how the council portion has changed from year to year.

The fact that a 2.95% is considered low considering how much the police budget go up over the years is pretty sad. For suggestions on what to cut, I would consider the mounted unit which I believe costs around $600K per year. Probably more important is finding any work that can be done by civilians (which are way cheaper than uniformed employees) that is being done by uniformed employees.

Lloyd Ferguson's Temporary Police Services Board Unlawful According to the Province

A bit strange that apparently the province has ruled that councilor Lloyd Ferguson can't replaced the suspended Terry Whitehead on the Hamilton Police Services Board.

I'm guessing a solution would be for Whitehead to resign and open up the spot for Ferguson. That may stop the proceedings, which could be good for Whitehead but he probably wants to remain on the board. It really does seem like the inmates are running the asylum at the police services board and giving a lot of support to chief Glenn De Caire.

I'm guessing at this point that council would prefer to not to reappoint De Caire to another term, but that's the police services board decision. If De Caire were not to be appointed to another term I would have to think another city would think twice about having as their chief someone who has been so defiant towards council, so the stakes are high for De Caire.

Spec Article on Violent Crime Decreasing in Hamilton

The Spec had an interesting article today on decreasing violent crime in Hamilton:

"Hamilton's downtown core and west end have seen the sharpest decline in violent crimes over the past three years, according to a comprehensive new analysis of the city's crime statistics.

However, drug crimes in the city showed a startling increase of nearly 40 per cent between 2009 and 2012. In the Hamilton Police Service's Division 1, which covers the lower city from Sherman Avenue to the boundary with Dundas, the number of drug crimes jumped 75 per cent — from 485 to 850.

Violent crimes in Division 1, including incidents such as homicides, assaults, robberies, stabbings and sexual assaults, fell by almost a quarter from 2009 to 2012. There were 2,084 violent crimes in Division 1 during 2012 compared to 2,693 in 2009.

Violent crimes dropped by 22 per cent between 2009 and 2012 in Division 3 — which covers the Mountain, Ancaster, Dundas and Flamborough — and declined by nearly 12 per cent in Division 2, which covers east Hamilton and Stoney Creek."

I'm not surprised that violent crime is down (due to demographics) but I am surprised by the amount in just three years. Police chief Glenn De Caire would doubtlessly argue that all the decrease is due to his department and would cite the ACTION team and the mounted unit. However considering where that the ACTION team as far as I understand it is deployed, Division 1 mainly and maybe some in Division 2 and the fact that violent crime fell pretty much the same in Division 1 and ACTIONless Division 3, I'm guessing that it is demographics and not the expensive ACTION team that's responsible for the drop. Of course De Caire is the type of police officer that is going to demand more officers whether crime goes up, down or stays exactly the same.

Drug crimes I'm not as concerned about, mainly because the police could always make more busts if they so desire, especially for marijuana, but it is harder for them to conjure up murder raps. If marijuana were legalized a lot of those drug crimes would disappear, although I'm sure the police budget would stay the same.

Is Tim Bosma hamilton's Fifth Homicide

Surly Hamiltonian has been tracking the homicides in Hamilton for 2013. This makes it easier to refer back to and murder is an especially important statistic for crime. Other stats can be juked by the police (think of the television show The Wire) but murders are more difficult. Hamilton is relatively small and with a low number of murders so the number of murders per year will jump around a lot.

So far four murders have been reported in Hamilton (compared to five in all of 2012) although no one was charged in a murder at a Tisdale and Main apartment building so far and few details have been reported, so whether that is a murder is open to interpretation (are self-defence cases murder?).

Tim Bosma of Ancaster has certainly been murdered. However the question for statistics of Hamilton murders, is whether he was murdered within the boundaries of Hamilton. This CBC article has a map with various locations associated with the crime identified, included Bosma's rural Ancaster residence. Bosma went for a test drive with his truck, however as of yet, it hasn't been reported when and where he was killed. Bosma's residence isn't that far from the Hamilton boundary, so it is possible that he may have been killed outside of Hamilton. It may be years before the case goes to trial and it is possible it may never be known exactly where he was killed, apart from the perpetrators.

If Bosma was murdered in Hamilton, that would mean we have already had the same number of murders as last year, with well over a year to go.

Hamilton City Council Should Just Vote No to Police Budget

After apparently just tabling the police budget tonight, for further review, the city still needs to make a decision on the police board's budget request. Personally  I think that council should just vote no. The chief, Glenn De Caire can appeal the decision to an independent arbitrator, however with the overall Ontario economy being weak as it is and Toronto achieving a budget freeze for their police, I'd take my chances with an arbitrator. Especially since council isn't looking to cut officers, only keep the current level.

Ten Police Officers on Suspension in Hamilton Currently

With police chief Glenn De Caire at city hall in front of council today, trying to get his increase, @EmmaattheSpec sent the following tweet:

"De Caire says there are 10 officers on suspension in 2011 and 2012. It's a statutory requirement to pay officers while suspended. #HamOnt"

Interesting that the chief wants 20 new officers, but up to ten are on suspension. I'm not exactly sure what this statement means. Are there ten on suspension now? Or in the years 2011 and 2012, ten different officers on suspension at one point or another?

I'm trying to track the current suspended cops. Right now I have David Doel, plus two more whose names I don't have handy. Looks like I should be looking for more.

Spec Article on Hamilton Police Services Board

Nicole O'Reilly has a really good article in the Spec about the police service board, specifically the four civilian members (including bios) that make up the majority. They are appointed by the province and since the Liberals have been in for a decade, likely they are Liberals appointees (some might say hacks, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt). There doesn't seem to be a lot of private sector work apart from Stayshyn and I'm not even sure from the Spec bio what Madeleine Levy had done for full time employment beyond being the member of various boards.

Certainly one doesn't get the sense from the article that any of the civilian board members have any concerns about fiscal responsibility. That's too bad, because anyone could build a good police force with unlimited money. Police Chief Glenn De Caire should be judged as an executive on value for money and he's been failing thus far as chief with his constant demands for more cash in a low GDP growth environment.

Further, there seems to be a belief held that raw police numbers are responsible for reducing crime rates.  However there are other factors, perhaps more important like the reduction of lead in the environment from banning leaded gasoline, described in this Mother Jones article. Considering Hamilton's industrial nature, lead levels and crime are certainly interesting and something I hope to return to in another post.