The Vancouver police board has won an appeal following a city council decision not to increase the department’s 2021 budget..The decision came amid wide-spread calls to defund the police, not only in Vancouver but across North America..Vancouver city council voted in December 2020 to “reduce,” or “freeze,” depending on who’s asked, the Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) net budget by $5.7 million — a move that Chief Constable Adam Palmer says “had a direct impact on the number of police officers the VPD was able to hire to meet the city’s complex policing needs.”.The board requested a budget of $322 million and council chopped the number down to an approved budget of $316 million — still $766,000 more than the 2020 budget..“Since that time, Vancouver has been gripped by an abundance of public safety challenges, including the ongoing Lower Mainland gang conflict, a surge in violent street crime, nearly 1,000 protests, concerning levels of hate crime, and a growing number of people who tell us they just don’t feel as safe as they used to,” said Palmer..The board argued the budget freeze was essentially a cut, with the allocation failing to take into account the board’s legal obligations under collective agreements and inflationary increases. Moreover, the board said council’s decision threw caution to the wind, arguing it would result in hiring delays to meet the increase in crime and failed to take risk analysis into account..The board said it was unable to hire 61 new recruits..The budget appeal was filed to the provincial director of police services, a move permitted under section 27(3) of the Police Act..Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Monday that the decision to axe the budget occurred “during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic when all departments were asked to do more with less.”.“It is important to note that at no time did the Vancouver Police Department lack access to requested funds thanks to the city’s budget reserves,” he said..One year after the appeal was filed, Palmer confirmed the board won its appeal, saying he is “committed to ensuring everyone feels safe again,” and has “confidence that a fully funded Vancouver Police Department can continue to combat the public safety challenges we face.”.The 2022 budget has already been approved therefore residents won’t see the impact of this decision until 2023..Various organizations in Vancouver, such as PACE Society, continue calling for defunding of VPD, which has accounted for about a fifth of the city’s total operating budget in recent years..Vancouver has seen a significant increase of “random attacks” recently, including a woman who was stabbed with a hypodermic needle last week..Similarly, another woman was stabbed with a hypodermic needle in October while leaving a coffee shop. It was around this time that VPD said about four unprovoked, random attacks were happening per day..The city’s Family Day long weekend saw 60 assaults, about a third of which were deemed unprovoked..Reid Small is a BC-based reporter for the Western Standard.,rsmall@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/reidsmall
