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Debate over police budgets needs to be more nuanced: Lewis
February 23, 2023

Why do rising policing costs not always equate to less crime?

That was the question posed in a recent paper published in the Canadian Public Policy journal which found that there was no clear link between rising police budgets and lowering crime rates.


I’m not disputing the data or analysis in the study but the various influencing factors and underlying issues are much more complex than the average reader might appreciate.


It is true that over time, police budgets (mostly comprised of salary dollars) increase and always have a substantial impact on government budgets. It is also a reality that some crime categories rise per capita and some decrease over those same periods. Decreases can be due to prevention efforts, key arrests, or a range of other factors. Some of those factors are within the control of police, where others are not. Regardless, the goal is to lower crime numbers year after year.


The ridiculous calls by some to “Defund Police”, have thankfully fallen on deaf ears. The reality is most police departments are barely making ends meet with what they have. Some have less personnel now (i.e. Toronto) than they did prior to the pandemic.


Policing in Canada was once largely provided by ill-equipped uniformed patrol officers, who received rudimentary training that consisted of the law, related procedures and police powers, as well as self-defense techniques. When things ‘got big’, they were supported by some specialists of sort – like detectives and what we then called ‘Identification Officers’ who could photograph, gather and preserve evidence – including blood, hair and fibers and fingerprints. That was pretty much it. No tactical teams, cameras, armoured vehicles, computers, digital radios or DNA. ‘Community Policing’ was often the function of a one-officer or small unit per police service. Crime prevention as an entity, fell to that one person or unit.


But even then, salaries formed much of the police budget.


Then the policing environment changed. Organized crime grew from a handful of groups to hundreds. The world shrunk as the digital world expanded rapidly and crime extended across all borders. Investigative techniques became more complex. Technology evolved as did the ability to victimize the public more broadly, as did the cost to police services to purchase technology and train personnel to use it. Transistor radio networks which once lasted decades moved to digital systems with equipment that became dated every few years.


More police specialists – like tactical teams, proceeds of crime investigators, financial crime experts and CSI units, came out of necessity. More advanced police vehicles, uniforms, cameras and weaponry evolved, and acquisition and maintenance costs grew exponentially. Legislated standards and expensive training all became a must. Court decisions impacted disclosure rules and the processes to obtain various judicial authorities, all of which came with a tremendous cost to police services.

More recently, the threat of terrorism forced police agencies to better gather and analyze intelligence, on a global scale. Surveillance operations and investigations of this magnitude require the deployment of massive resources 24/7, from all levels of policing, to prevent attacks and the massive loss of innocent lives.


Immigration continues to contribute greatly to Canada’s growing population. Concurrently, affordable housing availability continues to diminish amid rising housing costs. This does not make for a good situation from a homelessness perspective.


I’ve often said police work would be a cakewalk if it was not for the impacts from poverty, addiction, mental health issues and the homelessness that often emanates from some of the above factors. Many detractors cry that police have taken over the response to mental health and addiction occurrences as part of some intentional ‘job-growth’ conspiracy, but the fact is that police would rather not have to deal with any of those matters, ever. Unfortunately, that’s not the real world and police have to be ‘all things to all people’ in many instances, or no one would respond. Cuts to many social services that would professionally address a number of these situations, have resulted in police becoming the fallback response.

But even if every community had the best of programs and personnel to handle these matters, police would inevitably have to respond as well in most cases. Bad things sometimes happen to good people despite best intentions, and dedicated and well-intended personnel from these agencies would be in physically dangerous situations at times. Those instances would require a timely police response, so officers would have to be very close at minimum and often in plain sight to deter assaultive behaviour from occurring.


Mental health challenges aren’t only growing among those the police serve. All police services are dealing with those issues internally. Many services report record-setting numbers of personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress injuries alone, in addition to depression and other emotional health issues that impact all of society. Although I’m heartened that members are more often seeking the help they deserve, there is a human and financial cost to that as well. (It’s important to note that the past 18 months saw more murdered police officers in Canada than ever in our history.)


The smuggling of assorted forms of contraband – including narcotics, firearms and people, into Canada – as well as stolen vehicles out of the country, impacts all communities, and the RCMP continues to suffer from a shortfall of resources to address it. Moreover, the vast majority of guns used in violent crime in Canada – particularly when involving street gangs, are smuggled handguns from the U.S. That trend continues to grow and impacts public safety in Canada in municipalities of all sizes as well as rural and indigenous communities, and at a time where our national police are challenged to play a leading enforcement role.


The horrific sexual exploitation of children through the internet is a global issue. It has required a huge increase in dedicated investigators and technology. As has monitoring extremist groups through the internet and physically in our communities.


Protracted, linked and sometimes massive protests occur daily in this country. Often several occur simultaneously. Intelligence gathering, monitoring protest groups online, planning and responding to events has become a significant and resource intensive responsibility for police. At one time, the occasional labour strike was as close to a tense protest as police ever saw. When they did occur, police amassed a large group of officers and dealt with it. Now highly trained and equipped units must be in place to meet the full-time demand.


The pandemic years also took a horrific toll on police resources and budgets. Many tax dollars were spent to purchase personal protective equipment. Although certain calls for service diminished over those years, others like mental health calls and domestic disturbances increased, while police services struggled to meet their staffing needs as their own employees and families dealt with the personal consequences of COVID.


Police oversight is undoubtedly a necessity but continues to grow and also comes with a financial cost to police services.


Through collective bargaining, police salaries continue to rise and are a huge part of any municipal/provincial budget. Officers are well paid given their difficult role in society and from recruiting and retention perspectives. Vehicle and fuel costs as well as other operating expenses are rising also.


And don’t forget, our justice system is a huge contributor to rising police costs. Revolving door bail and parole systems where violent offenders are released quicker than officers can write their reports; numerous appearances where officers have to sit in court on overtime all day only to not get called as witnesses; criminal cases being tossed after days, months or years of investigation because of trial delays; and so on.


So, is rising police spending allowing police to adequately address new business?


Remember, the old business has not gone away. Assaults, murders, break-ins, robberies, thefts, domestic disturbances, traffic issues – including collisions, deaths and injuries ALL still occur with regularity, at the same time police are trying to properly meet the modern challenges mentioned above. You cannot look at rising policing costs and increasing crime rates as a failure. It’s way bigger than that. Most often these larger budgets are barely meeting inflation, while trying to address emerging crime numbers, growing public order events and ever-increasing complexity all around. Something has to give in this process.


It’s also important to note that no two municipalities are the same or face the same challenges. City “A” may have the same population as city “B” but many local factors come into play in terms of their local crime trends. Social, economic, housing, education, government services, industrial, demographic, climate, geography and other nuances can influence criminal activity.

What is the answer?

Police leaders must always do the right things to prevent crime and victimization in a fiscally responsible, open and honest way. When crimes do occur, they must similarly ensure the service is committed to professionally and effectively investigating and bringing suspects before the courts, within the parameters of the law and the Charter of Rights.


They need to be adequately funded to do that, not unjustly crying “there will be blood in the streets”, but at the same time honestly fighting for what their members truly need to protect the public and their members. The vast, vast majority do just that.


Governments must be armed with the facts and provided with the confidence that their police service is as effective and accountable as possible, then publicly defend and fully support their service, not further drag them down for some personal or partisan motive.


Lastly, we all have a role to play in understanding the realities of policing – knowing that they will have many successes and occasional failures, and do all we can to help them achieve ‘our’ mutual community safety goals.

Leadership involves risk, especially in policing

By Chris Lewis • March 28, 2026
Leadership is inundated with risk, every hour of every day, in all sectors. In policing, legislative authorities and established policy are the ever-present guideposts, but occasionally policy just doesn’t apply. At times someone has to just make a decision to do something, or not, or they will fail the public they serve and the personnel it is their duty to lead. If it goes bad, time to own up, do damage control, learn from it and move forward. It always frightened me when I saw some at the senior executive level in policing think that supervisors and managers operate in a pristine little bubble where nothing should ever go wrong. Then when it did because some supervisor tried their best to make something work for all the right reasons, they wanted to pigeon-hole the person that took the risk. There were times during my own career when executives were not encouraged to take any risk either. In fact, taking risk was career risk in itself. Despite the best of intentions, if it went bad, the one ‘responsible’ be forever labelled as having failed. Even if the gamble went well, the jaundiced eyes from above would still forever look at them as being a potential liability. It became the “Oh, him. He’s the one that...” At times the daily decision making of high-level commanders would be second-guessed by those in the executive suites – some of whom had never really commanded anything. My buddy retired Chief Wayne Frechette used to describe these folks as: “They’ve never been out after dark on company time.” I know this same concept was alive in many other police services. Some at executive levels actually did serve in operational roles at some point but they never took a risk. Somehow, they were fortunate to skate through difficult situations through sheer luck as opposed to good decision-making and never developed any scar tissue along the way. They didn’t learn from failure – they survived by luck. They also were viewed by weak executives above them as being golden because there was never a milli-second of negativity around them. They were Teflon. But those that worked under their “command” (for lack of a better word) had no respect for them. They simply watched them walk around with coffee in hand, never leaving the office or making a decision. It wasn’t leadership, but it did pave the way to stardom from on high, for some. True leaders do take risks at times. Many I worked with and for did it all and did it well. They did so in the best interests of those they served and those they led, because it wasn’t about themselves, but was done in the service of those that placed their trust in them. Policy simply doesn’t fit every situation. It is most often a guide that anticipates most circumstances that employees will face, particularly the more common (high-frequency) ones. But it cannot predict every possible scenario. When that happens in policing, it can occur in very unlikely situations (low-frequency) that are incredibly high-risk. Supervisors cannot say “Sorry folks, the book doesn’t cover this one” and run away crying. They also don’t have time to tell bad guys, “Hey big fella, sit tight. We need to take a pause here and get the whiteboard out so we can have a group-think about how to stop your murderous rampage.” I think that many pseudo-leaders – far too many, are afraid to make risky decisions out of fear that an error will jeopardize their career. Instead, they risk their careers by not making decisions. Or as I like to say: “their fear of career-risk, risks their careers.” This can be fatal in the policing world. When a police supervisor shirks their responsibilities or quivers, sucks their thumb, and prays for the situation to go away, thankfully constables will come forward and do their best to get their teammates through it. Sometimes that ends well and when the supervisor emerges from their fear-induced coma, they will more often than not take credit for the success. But when the situation goes to hell-in-a-handbasket – despite best efforts, the pseudo-leader will document the risk-taking employee and add another bullet-point to their list of things they’ve done to “hold people accountable.” The panel at their next promotional interview will likely hear the false rendition proudly told. I hear examples of this practise from serving police officers across North America on a much too frequent basis. True leaders develop a culture of trust among those they lead that their suggestions and feedback are encouraged and valued. Their confidence that the leader wants their input encourages them to constantly analyze situations and give thought to what policy says and the options available when policy says nothing. That is good for the employee’s development and may save the leader’s hind-end and the continuity of the team on occasion when an employee steps forward in a crisis. Having said that, there will clearly be situations where there isn’t time for the whiteboard, and a decision needs to be made by the responsible “leader.” When it doesn’t work out, the real leader will step forward and be accountable. But when it does go well, the true leader will allow the light to shine on the team they have the honour to lead. In my view, we’re not seeing enough of that in North American policing. We need more genuine leaders at all levels of law enforcement organizations. Developing and promoting real leaders that can manage risk effectively is a must. Anything less fails everyone.

Why Joint Forces Operations Are No Longer Optional

By Chris Lewis • March 26, 2026
They used to be simply a "nice to have."

Police investigating police: Is there another option?

By Chris Lewis • March 18, 2026
The March 17 th announcement by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) regarding the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation into allegations by an Ontario Justice that three TPS officers colluded and lied during a 2024 murder trial against a man that ran over and killed TPS Constable Jeffrey Northrup in 2021, has further inflamed the debate over who should investigate alleged police wrongdoing. This instance combined with the recent arrests and ongoing police investigation into several TPS officers for their alleged involvement with organized crime, has brought this discussion to a boiling point. I appreciate the public perceptions around this investigative model given that the average citizen doesn’t necessarily understand the professionalism and commitment of police investigative teams like the recent OPP Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) group. I have all the confidence the world in that team, but I also personally know the ability and integrity of the OPP Detective Inspector in-charge. So, if these investigations aren’t carried out by police, who will do them? They do not fall under the mandate of the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which by the way is largely comprised of former police criminal investigators and forensic identification experts, many of whom investigated homicides in police services. For SIU to assume a larger role, they would have to grow exponentially and expand their team of ‘former cops’. These cases generally do not fall under the purview of Ontario’s Inspectorate of Policing either. They would loosely fall under the oversight role of Ontario’s Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA), who is responsible for receiving, managing and overseeing public complaints against police, but frankly they don’t have mandate or the horsepower to conduct complex criminal investigations. They oversee the “public complaints” that may lead to a criminal investigation, but the investigation would be the responsibility of a police service to conduct. An expansion of the LECA would require a tremendous amount of funding and human resources, most of whom would also be former police officers. Hiring and training civilians to conduct such investigations is an option, but largely an incomprehensible one. Police criminal investigators are trained officers that generally start out as uniformed officers responding to occurrences and investigating more routine and less serious crimes, i.e. minor assaults and property crimes. They build investigative expertise over time, including in interviewing and interrogation; gathering and securing physical evidence; legal processes like obtaining judicial authorizations; presenting evidence in court; and various investigative strategies. They learn how to work with special police units that provide specific investigative skills, and more. All of this doesn’t happen overnight, but over a period of years and with the tutelage of more experienced investigators along that journey. Trying to turn a group of young and well-educated civilians – no matter how intelligent and well-intended, into a team of elite investigators, would be a complete disaster and unfair to the public or to the officers being investigated. Over my many years as a member or as the Director of the OPP CIB, my colleagues and I investigated criminal allegations against cops from other agencies. Before the SIU was formed, we investigated officers from many Ontario police services – large and small, who had used deadly force. Many were cleared and a number were arrested and charged. We also investigated criminal allegations against police chiefs in Ontario. Again, several were appropriately cleared, and some were brought before the courts. Municipal, provincial and federal elected officials were similarly investigated and some charged. Our members also investigated police officers in other provinces, including high-ranking ones. I personally investigated two Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers that were involved in an arrest that result in the death of a suspect. They were properly exonerated, but I would have charged them in a heartbeat if they had wrongfully killed than man. I arrested an OPP Sergeant for sexual assault. A CIB colleague investigated and arrested two different OPP officers for criminal offences. Both of those officers had been personal friends of mine and years later committed suicide. There are tons of similar examples that I can refer to over my career. All of these involved the oversight and legal analysis of a Crown Attorney, sometimes from another province. The interesting thing, and what most of the anti-police folks will never believe, is that in every single one of those investigations, the dialogue that I was involved in with other officers that I worked with or supervised, involved doing what was right. In other words, “If the allegation is substantiated, we will put the case together, arrest them and put them before the courts.” Not even once, did we think about or do anything that would give an officer a pass when they committed a criminal offence. Never. I have every confidence in the world that the vast majority of municipal and RCMP colleagues across Canada would operate under the same guiding principle. Has the occasional officer worked in conflict with that approach? Undoubtedly. Were some investigators not as committed or capable as they should be and perhaps did a poor investigation accidentally or deliberately? Quite likely so. But I truly believe those cases are the exception, not the rule in criminal investigations. Where I more often believe poor investigations or deliberate attempts to inappropriately give a colleague a break continues to occur, is in Police Act investigations, where policy or employee harassment wrongdoings are suspected. I like to think that the focus on that continues to improve, but not fast enough in some cases. Sadly, I know now that unbeknownst to me at the time, it happened under my watch. A focus for my next article. The public and police deserve the very best of investigators to ensure that bad cops are effectively put out of business and good officers are cleared. If there’s another effective option that would appease the doubting public – aside from using current officers from other agencies or creating a new and costly entity that would be staffed by former police officers, I’d like to hear it.