Police board charitable accounts facing deficits

By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express

Durham’s police board may need to review how it doles out charitable donations in the future, according to a staff report.

Under the Police Services Act, Durham Regional Police Service is able to use recovered money and property to boost its support of charitable organizations.

This regulation applies to money or property that was stolen or abandoned and its rightful owner cannot be determined, or seized lawfully by officers through police duties, and no court order has been given for its disposition.

The board first introduced a policy in relation to this section of the act in 2010.

According to the staff report, the number of requests for funding to the board has increased moderately over the past few years.

As October, the board had donated $101,821 to local organizations this year.

“The board has been able to respond favourably to many requests as the unclaimed money and property account had grown significantly in recent years,” the report states.

However, the amount deposited into the account has largely dropped since 2014.

In 2018 alone, the difference between funds given to organizations and deposited into the account was more than $56,000.

The report states the account has seen ‘considerable deficits’ over the past few years.

In addition, the amount deposited year to year varies widely, and revenues are difficult to predict accurately.

For example, in 2016, there was $115,642 put into the account, but that fell to $39,585 in 2017.

The total balance of the account as of Oct. 18, 2018 was approximately $320,000. Therefore board executive director Bill Clancy notes in the report that deficits, while not ideal, can continue to be managed for a number of years.

“However, absent larger deposits, it will be necessary at some point in the next several years to adjust the overall approach given that donations generally exceed revenues by a fairly large margin,” Clancy states.