MOOSE JAW — The Moose Jaw Police Service will ask city council for a budget funding increase of more than seven per cent for 2025, while it also wants over $340,000 for capital upgrades.
The Board of Police Commissioners approved the police service’s operating and capital budget requests during a special meeting on Nov. 7.
In its 2025 operating budget, the police service is proposing expenses of $16,066,981 and revenues of $2,911,207, for a net operating budget request from council of $13,155,774. In comparison, those numbers in 2024 were, respectively, $14,159,410, $1,913,507 and $12,245,903.
This means the police service is asking for a net operating budget increase of 7.43 per cent.
One reason the police service’s revenues are increasing by $997,700 is because the provincial and federal governments are providing more funding for new positions, with $747,700 and $250,000, respectively.
Meanwhile, the expense categories with the largest increases are salaries (a jump of $924,157), telecommunications/911 (a rise of $231,800), employee benefits (an increase of $205,914) and computer software (a jump of $110,000).
In next year’s operating budget, the police service plans to focus on technological and communication upgrades and operational strategies and enhancements.
With the first initiative:
- In-car reporting and enhanced computer-aided dispatch (CAD) will keep officers in the community instead of at headquarters, which should increase interactions and visibility, reduce response times, enhance investigative capacity and have more effective and efficient policing
“Annual licensing costs for this initiative have been introduced in the 2025 budget to support this initiative on an annual basis,” a police board report said.
- Enhanced risk management and prisoner safety will see the agency install bio-metric sensors in cells to monitor high-risk prisoners and alert staff to possible medical emergencies
- Upgrades to the communications centre’s technology will see new answering systems that will allow the centre to receive calls by text, picture and possible GPS locations
- Phase 1 of the body-worn cameras project will start enhancing officers’ audio-visual capabilities and evidence management by laying the groundwork for future deployment of such technology
With the second initiative, the MJPS will focus on:
- Serious crime: The MJPS and RCMP have formed an eight-person integrated crime reduction team to address issues such as guns, gangs and drugs
- Public safety: The budget will support ongoing initiatives and newly developed plans to enhance police presence in parks and public spaces; officers will patrol regularly on new e-bikes
- Recruiting strategy: The agency has developed a plan to attract candidates to fill vacancies and newly funded positions
- Professional standards: A full-time non-civilian professional standards officer is required to address the demands for timely and thorough investigations of complaints, to promote enhanced accountability and to regularly review and update policies; an officer is currently handling this file as a secondary task
- Community response: The agency is developing a strategy to further enhance its community presence and the response times of victim services’ staff
Furthermore, in its proposed 2025-29 capital budget, the agency wants total funding of $734,000. This includes $344,000 next year, $90,000 in two years, $95,000 in three years, $100,000 in four years and $105,000 in five years.
Next year’s proposed capital budget includes:
- $50,000 for an elevator replacement
- $10,000 for firearms range maintenance
- $149,000 for renovations to work areas
- $40,000 for security upgrades to the detention centre
- $10,000 for a sidewalk replacement
- $85,000 for “unanticipated infrastructure demands” to address an aging and deteriorating headquarters building
Deputy Chief Rick Johns said the MJPS’s budget request represented about 23 per cent of council’s operating budget, a number that has remained constant for a decade.
Meanwhile, he challenged “misconceptions” that the costs of policing “were going through the roof” and driving increases in the city’s budget. While certain expenses like technology continued to rise, the MJPS’s budget remained stable. Therefore, the 7.43-per-cent budget increase request helped maintained the agency’s existing resources.
Comments from police board members about the budget will appear in a second story.
