Edmonton police budget needs audit, accountability: lawyer

A criminal defence lawyer in Alberta’s capital is calling for an independent audit of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) after city council approved increasing funding for the department on Wednesday.

Tom Engel, who is also chair of the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association’s policing committee, penned a letter on behalf of the committee urging city council to not approve a new funding formula until it had a complete audit of EPS.

“We’re very disappointed that Edmonton city council has basically handed over, once again, over $400 million to the Edmonton Police Service without any financial controls, no strings attached,” said Engel.

“That’s a serious problem.”

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The exact dollar amount for next year’s police budget is not currently known, because it will be calculated later this year with the most accurate population growth and inflation numbers.

However, Stacey Padbury, the city’s chief financial officer, has offered a hypothetical calculation of what the budget could be. Funding would start with 2023’s EPS expenditures of $422.9 million, add $10.8 million to account for population growth and inflation, and add $3.8 million for salary settlements after a new contract gave officers retroactive raises.

That would make for a yearly budget of $437.4 million for 2024, Padbury said, using Wednesday’s inflation and population growth numbers.

Engel said Edmontonians deserve to know how that money will be spent.

“All citizens in Edmonton should have some confidence that the Edmonton Police Service is spending the money wisely and efficiently,” he said.

“That just doesn’t exist, and I don’t understand why city council doesn’t demand that.”

While there was no official demand for an audit, audits and accountability were brought up at the debate Wednesday.

Ward Nakota Isga Coun. Andrew Knack said there hasn’t been a city-run audit done at EPS since 2017 and asked if the police department or the Edmonton Police Commission (EPC) would be open to one.

“There’s an extremely strong desire on the commission’s part to be as transparent as possible,” said EPC chair Erick Ambtman.

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“We’re in a spot where that public trust has been eroded, so anything that can earn back more trust in the system is really important.”

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he wanted to know that the funding increase would lead to an increased police presence.

“I need some sort of assurance from (the commission) that we will see, with the approval of this formula, more boots on the ground and that people will feel safe or at least see police more often,” he said.

“We are doing everything we can to put police resources in our community — that’s our goal,” said Justin Krikler, chief administrative officer of the EPS.

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Whether hiring more police officers would help address crime or social issues in the city is not clear, according to Dan Jones, chair of the justice program at Norquest College.

“If you have stable funding, you also need stable, evidence-based policing practices,” he said.

“The money’s not going to solve anything if you’re not doing the right things out there in order to deal with crime.”

While Jones said he is supportive of the formula and believes it will bring stability to the service, he is also pushing for a strategy called “focused deterrence,” where police and other community groups meet with perpetrators of certain crimes and help get them out of a criminal lifestyle.

“(You could) have a community situation table where you can go to the individuals who are involved in the crime and say, ‘Hey, we don’t want you to die. We don’t want you to kill anybody. We don’t need you to go to jail. We’d like to help you look for work,’” said Jones.

He said the strategy showed an 80 per cent reduction in homicides after it was trialed in Boston in 1995.

At the end of the police funding discussion, Ward O-day’min Coun. Anne Stevenson said she will be asking city staff to make a report that looks at the other factors influencing safety in Edmonton, particularly the ones included in the city’s Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy.

The strategy is made up of seven pillars: anti-racism; reconciliation; safe and inclusive spaces; equitable policies, procedures, standards and guidelines; pathways in and out of poverty; crime prevention and crisis intervention; and well-being.

Stevenson will request that the report details how much the city currently spends in the seven pillars, and explores how a funding formula could be applied to each of the seven pillars so that they can also have stability amid population growth and inflation.

The final police budget will be calculated in the fall.