Edmonton police predict $6.8M budget overage: ‘It’s a significant amount of money’

The Edmonton Police Service forecasts it will be $6.8 million over budget this year partly because drivers aren’t paying their tickets, the chief says.

“For us, it’s a significant amount of money,” Police Chief Rod Knecht said Thursday after the Edmonton Police Commission’s monthly meeting.

Knecht said part of the shortfall is due to overspending on personnel costs as a result of the Edmonton Police Association contract settlement. However, people not paying traffic tickets is also to blame, he added.

That’s despite the fact police have handed out about 10 per cent more tickets this year, according to a report presented at the EPC meeting Thursday.

“If you look at year-over-year, we’re writing more traffic tickets, we’re out there, we’re responding to the challenges in the traffic situation,” Knecht said.

The police chief had a few theories as to why people aren’t paying their tickets.

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“I do believe it certainly is a consequence of the economy,” he said.

“People aren’t paying their tickets, they’re hoping they don’t get stopped or caught. A lot of these tickets would be going to warrant and they’ll pay it when they get caught, so to speak.”

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His other theory is that visitors from outside Alberta who get tickets don’t feel the need to pay them.

“A lot of times we don’t have the ability to enforce the ticket beyond the provincial boundaries, we won’t extend that warrant. And most judges aren’t going to say, ‘we’re going to extend a warrant to Newfoundland to bring a guy back for a $150 speeding ticket.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Knecht stressed that police do not hand out tickets as a way to generate revenue but added he doesn’t believe police budgets should be linked to traffic tickets or traffic enforcement in any way.

“We should be completely independent of that,” he said. “I mean, that’s the last reason we want to be writing tickets is to generate revenue. I think that’s actually a conflict of interest.”

Between 2015 and 2018, $132.4 million in city funding was approved for EPS capital expenditures.

In a year-end interview with Global News, Knecht suggested 60 new police officers are needed in Edmonton to keep up with the growing city.