Victoria’s chief constable says he has been forced to make changes in how the department operates to cope with staff and funding shortages.
The Victoria Police Department released its “Transformation Report” on Wednesday.
The report outlines the problems facing VicPD. According to the report, at a time when the department is experiencing more calls to 911, response times are getting longer, workloads for officers are increasing, and crimes like cyberfraud and the online predators aren’t being investigated.
To deal with those pressures, VicPD Del Manak said service will suffer.
“There are going to be service reductions, and cuts to what the police department has done in the past. And we’re going to reduce our capacity in order to meet our primary mandate for responding to our public’s need for calls for service,” Manak said.
Manak said major crimes like homicides, assaults and robberies will still receive top priority attention but patrols of local parks, responses to neighbourhood issues and answering after hours animal control complaints could face delays.
Manak said major crimes like homicides, assaults and robberies will still receive top priority attention but patrols of local parks, responses to neighbourhood issues and answering after hours animal control complaints could face delays.
“There’s no doubt there are going to be significant changes in our response capacity and in the ability for us to actually focus and respond to the calls we actually ought to respond to,” the chief said at a news conference.
Manak said one of his officers told him some non-emergency calls by citizens already go unanswered for days and the chief added that situation is not likely to improve under the changes.
He said the department is considering adjusting current patrol units, appointing special constables, who don’t carry guns, to respond to lower priority calls and eliminating police liaison officers at local schools.
“I’m unable to meet the need of our communities in the model we currently have, so the fiscal realities and the staffing shortages have basically forced us to look internally at how we’re going to be able to carry on and sustain credible, effective responsive policing in the 21st Century,” he said.
The department’s full complement of officers is 249, but due to injuries and job-related leaves only 208 officers are currently on regular duty, Manak said.
Manak said Victoria and Esquimalt councils have created this situation through lack of funding.
“The transformation strategy is as a result of the sustainability of policing. And knowing that we’re not getting support from our councils to support the police budget to what we require to provide policing,” Manak said.
But Victoria Mayor, Lisa Helps said residents are safe despite the redeployment of officers.
“When all of the things in the transformation report are implemented, I think we’ll see an increase in public safety,” Helps said.
With files from The Canadian Press
Mary Griffin
