The six homicides investigated by Waterloo Regional Police this year have put strain on other areas of police operation, Chief Matt Torigian says.

“This year, we’ve had an unusually high number of homicide investigations and challenging investigations,” Torigian tells CTV News.

In recent years, Waterloo Region has averaged around 3.5 homicides per year.

Police make staffing decisions based on past crime trends, which means an uptick in homicides like 2013 has seen causes resources to be deployed from elsewhere in the police service.

“Policing is a very expensive business, and it’s difficult to budget on contingency or impression,” Torigian says, adding that the opposite scenario could play out if a future year sees a below-average number of homicides – homicide detectives being reassigned to other duties due to lack of work.

Police board chair Tom Galloway says it’s not the police board’s job to determine how much the police service spends on homicide investigations.

“It’s up to (Torigian) to create those priorities with his senior staff,” he says.

With all of that in mind, Torigian submitted a new budget proposal to the region’s police services board on Wednesday.

Regional councillors and the police board had previously asked for a budget with a net tax increase of 0.9 per cent.

The initial budget proposed by police came in with a 1.1 per cent increase, but the police board asked for more suggestions on what could be cut to reach a target of 0.9 per cent.

Results of that suggestion were presented to the police board Wednesday.

They include a $350,000 reduction in salaries and benefits, a decision not to transfer $200,000 into a reserve for future information technology projects, a $150,000 reduction in facilities maintenance and utilities, plus cuts to uniform costs and other services.

In total, the cuts amount to nearly $1 million.

Torigian says he’s not in favour of cutting any of those items.

“There isn’t fat to cut,” he says.

“If we’re too thin everywhere, then we’re not going to be able to maintain our core responsibilities.”

Galloway says the police board is in favour of the cuts despite the chief’s objections.

Specifics of the cuts to salaries and benefits were not presented, but Torigian says the service would look at managing the “ebbs and flows” of staffing levels during the year to reach the target without cutting any employees loose.