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.