KITCHENER -- The 2020 Waterloo Regional Police Service budget is currently sitting at $181 million.

Now, weeks away from approval, police are looking to save money, and it could start at the front desk.

"We're looking at if we can do business differently," Police Chief Bryan Larkin said at the police services board meeting on Wednesday.

A team with the police service was created with the goal is to create financial savings. They analyzed four weeks' worth of timesheets and found evidence of what they call waste to the tune of $1.3 million.

That's how much it costs to staff four front desks across the WRPS.

A report broke down the numbers, showing that the night shift at the front desk is where some money could be saved: staff were found to spend 20 per cent or less of their shifts on task.

That means they're being paid for an eight-hour shift, but only on task for about 1.6 hours.

"It doesn't mean they're not doing other things in the division, doing report-writing and those types of things, but the actual citizen demand is 1.6," Larkin explains.

The report indicates that costs the service about $380,000 per year.

Instead, it recommends eliminating the night shift at the front desk, or use part-time special constables as an alternative.

That wouldn't apply at police headquarters, which is considered more of an administrative building, open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

But changes are on the way for HQ's front desk: $950,000 will be spent on improving security, including raised counters and bulletproof glass.

More than 40 per cent of the $25 million capital budget is tied to renovations to facilities, the bulk of them at Kitchener's Central Division.

"Opening a new central division as we modernize and grow as a police service, add a new prisoner care and control facility," Larkin says.

The recommendations for front desk changes have not been finalized.

Larkin says it will be brought forward at another police services board meeting in the first quarter of 2020.

The final budget approval is scheduled for next month.