New police contract adds about $33 million to LPS multi-year budget request

The London Police Service Board (LPSB) unanimously added about $33 million over four years to its already record-setting budget request to city hall.

The initial police budget approved by the LPSB in October did not factor in the collective bargaining agreement ratified a few weeks later by the London Police Association.

“That contract impacted the salaries of police officers, and 95 per cent of our budget is made up of police personnel costs,” explained Chief Thai Truong.

Pending council approval, policing costs could soar 16.8 per cent higher next year to $153.5 million.

The chief said his finance team have re-examined the budget but could not find any savings that wouldn’t jeopardize public safety.

“We looked at the objective of the multi-year budget, we looked at what we need to do right now to ensure the city is safe not just for the people who live here, but the people who work here and visit here,” Chief Truong told CTV News.

“We have one of the highest crime severity indexes across the province,” explained London Mayor Josh Morgan who sits on the police board. “We have a rise in the complexity of violent crime in our city. We have police response times that I don’t think anyone thinks are acceptable.”

The mayor said the city treasurer is already aware of the additional personnel costs and is in the process of determining how much of the increase might end up on property tax bills.

The chief defended the decision not to include a placeholder estimate of the contract’s value in the initial budget submission, “We chose not to just guess a number. To me, it’s inappropriate in a time when bargaining is occurring.”

The mayor said London police are willing to make their case to taxpayers leading up to budget deliberations in February.

“The chief and the administration have expressed a great openness to being out there in a much more transparent way than we’ve seen in the past decade to say these are the investments that are necessary,” he said.

The chief added, “If you don’t invest in the police, you aren’t investing in the community. Period.”

The 2024-2027 Municipal Budget will be approved in early March.