Revised police budget approved

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

The Durham Police Services Board has approved the force’s 2016 budget after the region asked it to trim it down a little.

The budget for next year is $187.5 million, an increase of 3.87 per cent over last year’s budget of just under $181.8 million.

This number is smaller than the initial budget presented to the board in October, with the force tabling a $189.12-million budget at that time. The region’s finance and administration committee sent in its 2016 budget guidelines to the force, requiring them to lower their budget down to $187.5 million.

Giles le Riche, the board’s director of business services, attributed much of the clawbacks to the delaying of hiring replacement officers and reducing funding for several assets in need of replacement, including the force’s bomb disposal robot.

The budget also includes an assumption of wage rates for officers as there is still not a bargaining agreement in place between the police board and the Senior Officers’ Association. The two have been without an agreement since the end of 2014.