Kingston Police have released their finances for the first three months of 2023.
The force spent over $11.8M, $780,000 over budget.
Acting Chief of Police Scott Fraser says it’s not as bad as it seems.
“The costs came early, and they’re big costs. They’re budgeted for, but we have to pay it in January and February,” said Fraser. “We don’t get the money from our budget until the entire year is done.”
Some unexpected costs are to blame according to the information shared by the Police Services Board.
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations cost Kingston police over $140,000 including $88,000 spent on overtime, and $22,000 to put up out of town officers in hotels and another $22,000 to feed them.
“It was roughly 250 meals a day, but we didn’t have to accommodate 250 people. We have both Kingston police staff,sworn and civilian. We also have our OPP counterparts who were in helping us. We have outside agencies Belleville, Smiths Falls, Gananoque, Brockville,” said Fraser.
Another costly event was the shooting in front of Collins Bay Institution, which cost $28 ,000 in overtime.
Other budget deficits included a $362,000 overage paid for supplies and materials, and an extra $227,000 in benefits paid out.
“It looks bad right now, just because we’ve only got three months, January, February and March from the city for our budget. We still have a lot more to come,” said Fraser.
While Kingston Police are technically running a deficit in the first quarter of the year acting Police Chief Fraser believes a more accurate picture will come to light with the budget update after the second quarter of the year is done.
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