Waterloo Region’s police chief says budget cutbacks are not only hurting officer morale, they’re forcing police to put some cases on the back burner.
“We have actionable information on some very serious and significant crimes. To not be able to act on that immediately places a challenge and a strain on some of the investigators,” Chief Matt Torigian tells CTV News.
Torigian spoke in response to comments made by North Dumfries Mayor Rob Deutschmann during a Wednesday budget meeting.
Claiming there was a “significant morale problem” in the Waterloo Regional Police Service, Deutschmann proposed adding $200,000 to the police budget for 2014.
“I have a concern … that we’re cutting so much, to reach a certain percentage point, that it’s hurting our services overall,” he said.
Deutschmann’s idea was voted down, but Chief Matt Torigian says his comments about officer morale hit the mark.
“When you have increasing demands, and constraint or even diminishing resources – the pressures that can put on the individuals doing the job can obviously have an impact on morale,” he says.
“Our organization is not immune, and is consistent with what we’re seeing in our industry.”
Torigian says budget cutbacks over the last few years have forced the service to take officers out of the investigative ranks and put them on the front lines.
In recent years, 50 officers have been taken out of homicide, domestic violence, fraud and other investigative units to help fulfill a mandate of putting 17 officers per division on the street at all times.
As a result, he says, remaining investigators are being asked to handle more cases than ever before – and often have to put cases they can advance aside in favour of more important files.
“What you end up with is cases that don’t get acted on as quickly as possible,” he says.
The 2014 police budget, approved Wednesday by regional councillors, includes a 0.81 per cent tax increase.
