No.
Put that money into the courts, because there's no point of having more police if we aren't even seeing criminal cases to their conclusion!
When rape and murder victims aren't able to seek justice because there aren't enough resources for the courts to have a trial, you know things are screwed up.
And what's the point of "catch and release, and re-catch and re-release" of criminals anyway? It's just another burden that costs taxpayers money without any convictions!
This right here police chief.
Municipal budgets don't fund those things.
I'm not asking Toronto to pay for it. But it makes no sense for municipal police to get more funding when provincial courts are underfunded.
I I hope a good chunk of that is earmarked for 911 dispatchers. I know it won't be, but wait times have been consistently several minutes when the standard is to answer 90% of calls in less 15 seconds.
Toronto's AG found examples that during peak volume periods when the number of call takers fell below the minimum requirement for that time period โ only 6, out of the required 13, operators working.
That's 6 call takers fielding an average of 5000 calls in a city of 3 million people.
They're understaffed, underpaid, overworked, suffering PTSD, all within a toxic work environment.
Let's get the 911 dispatchers outside of the police budget and then ensure they're properly funded!