Vancouver police ask City for 11% budget increase

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is asking the Police Board and the City of Vancouver to approve an 11% budget hike for next year.

The proposed 2023 budget would see the VPD’s operations allotment increase by $38 million to $383 million.

“The nature of policing is largely reactive and the VPD must be nimble and able to adapt to various, unpredictable changes,” the force says in the budget document set to be presented to the Police Board on Thursday.

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Once the Board approves the proposed budget, it will be presented to City Council for a vote next week.

The proposed budget includes money for the 100 new police officers and 20 civilian staffers Mayor Ken Sim promised on the campaign trail.

It also includes nearly $1.2 million for digital upgrades and cellphones for officers (who often use personal phones for investigative work), $200,000 for a body-camera pilot program, $250,000 for community policing centres, and nearly $400,000 for the police board — some of which will be used to hire a new communications position.

Policing currently takes up 20% of the City of Vancouver’s total expenditures, according to its 2023 Draft Budget.

City of Vancouver

The VPD accounted for the City’s maximum budget increase going into 2023 — tied to a 5% increase in property taxes.

Sim’s ABC Party now has a majority on City Council, and the mayor campaigned on promises to improve public safety. Last week, council approved a motion to hire 200 police officers and nurses.

The 11% increase to the VPD’s operational budget is at odds with calls to defund police forces that circulated widely following Goerge Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis.

The previous City Council tried to freeze the VPD’s budget for 2021, but the province ordered the City to reverse that decision — awarding an additional $5.7 million to the force.