Hamilton’s secretive Police Service Board has reversed its plan to limit public comments before releasing its 2025 budget.
On November 28, the Board announced it will pass a 5.7 percent budget increase for 2025.
In the same announcement, the Board stated it would release the budget on December 10, and they imposed a December 9 cut-off for public comments about the budget.
Ward 2 Clr Cameron Kroetsch called on the Board to change this plan, and many members of the public made similar calls.
(Kroetsch was suspended from the police board for speaking critically about the 2024 budget. Police Board members are required by provincial law to support police budget increases. Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish had to resign from Peel’s Police Board when she did not support a 21.3 percent budget increase.)
Initially, the Hamilton Police Service rejected requests for transparency.
On Friday, the Police Board stated it will permit public comments by email until December 15 at 5 p.m.
The HPS Board conducted its budget meetings in closed session, contrary to the open meeting requirements of the Community Safety and Policing Act.
Unlike municipalities, Police Boards are exempt from the oversight of Ontario’s Ombudsman.
Hamilton’s Police Board also prohibits members of the public from recording its public meetings.
Addendum: The email contact address for the Police Board is kirsten.stevenson@hamilton.ca. The Police Board X post provided an incorrect email address.
Production Details
v. 1.0.1
Published: December 7, 2024
Last updated: December 9, 2024
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
v. 1.0.1 added info about HPS board email address
Discussion
7 commentsWe already saw a significant budget increase last year
. Meanwhile, police services have noticeably decreased especially in the downtown area. This secrecy of proceedings contradicts our democratic values.
The city, like most municipalities, are short on officers because of attrition.
Good people don’t want to be cops for the pay and ungrateful public.
Swore officers are well compensated. It is challenging and draining work, without a doubt. Retention is a challenge across emergency services, the work takes a toll.
Seems like police budgets are above scrutiny. Why bother the public with false hope for any kind of input?
Police are beholden to no-one, they are mostly people who crave to control others and get a badge & a gun to do just that. In their opinion they are mostly above the law. I always look down at the ground and answer only, “yes sir/no sir” and my name, address and social insurance number. Kinda like name, rank, serial number, as a pow.
I am going to disagree in part with the generalization.
My interactions with officers have proven to me the vast majority pursue the career for good reasons: helping others, etc.
The challenge is a culture that too often protects bad cops and this taints the profession.
The thin blue line culture undermines public confidence.
Your perception of the police does not include how the homeless and other vulnerable groups have been treated. You make the same mistake others do, it’s just a few bad apples. Police officers do important work, but they are failing us. There are many good cops I agree, but the bad ones are protected and do serious damage. But it also the methods of the police which are causing harm and why we are willing to spend millions on body cameras. Without proper transparency and accountability nothing will change. It is the transparency and accountability which gives a sense of things are working. If the trans woman who was being intimidated by the officer on behalf of the landlord did not have a video tape of the interaction, do you think she would have been successful in her complaint? maybe but odds are against it. Who are you going to believe? the police officer or the complainant. I would love to have a cup of coffee with you at Timmy’s. On me. I will tell you my sad tale about the real cost of police checks. I can send you the police complaint about this issue.
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