The Sarnia Police Service is projecting another budget increase this year.
Before any additional spending or projects, the upcoming budget is looking at roughly a 4 per cent increase due to salaries and inflation.
Police Chief Derek Davis, during a public information meeting Thursday, said the rate of recidivism, aging infrastructure, and insufficient reserve funds are some of the challenges impacting the 2024 Sarnia Police Service Budget.
He said among the priorities for next year is improving investigative efficiencies such as implementing a Canine Unit and increasing reserve funds for infrastructure improvements.
"Our building is 37 years old going on 38," said Davis. "According to an outside engineering firm, that building is in need of $2 million to $3 million in repairs just to meet building codes. Normally, you would set aside funds every year to build towards that ultimate contingency. I can tell you that currently, based on our reserves, we have $200,000 for building replacement set aside."
Davis said other key priorities include addressing increasing workloads and overtime costs.
"Our contingency reserve which funds contingencies, massive investigations, in 2021 we had four homicides," he said. "There's things that happen that we have to respond to as a police organization. There's $265,000 set aside for that. That's not a lot. One investigation alone [in 2022] ended up being approximately $100,000 just in overtime."
The 2023 budget saw an 11.5 per cent increase, the highest ever in the service's history.
Another public budget information session is set for Tuesday, September 12 at Our Lady of Mercy Church at 6:30 p.m.
The draft budget will be presented at the Sarnia Police Service Board's next meeting on September 14.
The document will then go to Sarnia City Council for approval during budget deliberations on December 5.