Kingston police proposed budget looks for 6.1-per cent increase from city

Kingston, Ont., police are asking the city for a 6.1-per cent increase in their proposed 2024 budget.

The Kingston Police Services Board has approved the force’s proposed $47,072,196 budget, which, if approved by council, would amount to a $2.7-million increase over the service’s 2023 budget.

Acting Kingston Police Chief Scott Fraser — who was named the service’s new chief Tuesday — tells Global News police had to trim from their preliminary budgets to get down to the 6.1-per cent increase seen in the proposed budget.

“We don’t want to jeopardize public safety, but we also understand we’ve got a framework we’ve got to fit in,” he said Tuesday.

“We’ve done everything that we can — obviously council has the ultimate deciding factor on a budget — and we’re trying to present them something that, at the end of the day, we’ve done everything we can to get as low as we can.”

Fraser, who starts his role as chief Jan. 1, said that’s meant pushing off some of the things the service had hoped to do into future budgets.

The proposed budget forecasts operating budgets with an increase of 6.32 per cent in 2025, 5.22 per cent in 2026, and 5.17 per cent in 2027.

As for the increases in the 2024 proposed budget, the document points to inflation, new positions and also the continued costs of policing post-secondary mass gatherings as reasons for the rising spending.

The budget includes $60,000 of administrative monetary penalties revenues, and $400,000 from the city’s working fund reserve, to offset $460,000 of additional budget for policing the post-secondary student mass gatherings.

The proposed 2024 Kingston police budget will be included in the city’s wider budget discussions starting next year.