Victoria Police Chief Del Manak has disbanded the department’s crime-reduction unit, citing budget pressures and a spike in the number of officers unable to work due to physical or stress-related injuries.
The nine-member unit, which focused on preventing crime by targeting prolific offenders, was shut down effective June 1.
Manak said he was forced to redeploy the unit’s officers because his department is struggling to respond to emergency calls for help and some officers are “breaking” under the workload pressures.
“You can’t send normal people to calls where they’re assisting people who are suicidal. They’re intervening in horrific, horrific scenes that most people aren’t privy to or have to deal with. [They’re] notifying next of kin when loved ones have passed away — and having no time to decompress and get your thoughts together [before] responding to the next call,” he said. “It’s not really a sustainable strategy.”
The department’s authorized strength sits at 249, but Manak said 35 officers are unavailable for a variety reasons, ranging from parental leave to work-related injuries. A number of officers are also enrolled in the police academy at the Justice Institute, he said.
“As a result of all that, I’m actually unable to meet our mandate of being able to respond to members of our community who are calling 911 for immediate police response,” he said.
“I have to be able to respond in a manner that provides community safety. If I’m unable to do that, I have to reallocate resources and disband our units, which are nice to have. They’re an important part of policing. But they’re not the core part of what we do.”
Manak said his department is so overworked that there were 46 calls on hold at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“These are 46 individuals from our communities who have phoned 911 and are waiting for the Victoria Police Department to respond,” he said.
“I cannot meet that demand.”
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps declined to comment, saying Manak’s decision was “operational.”
But Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, who co-chairs the police board with Helps, expressed concern at the loss of the crime-reduction unit.
“Prevention is important,” she said. “For Esquimalt, it has been extremely important, so it’s that much more concerning for me, in my role as a community leader here, that we’re losing that.
“So what does policing then look like? We don’t want to go back to just responding to incidents because we know that that isn’t the best way.”
Victoria Coun. Geoff Young called the move “unfortunate,” and said council went too far this spring in forcing the police department to tighten its belt. He opposed the decision at the time.
“In a way, it’s not surprising there are further cuts,” he said.
Victoria council approved a police budget increase of 3.2 per cent in March, but rejected Manak’s request for more officers and insisted the department absorb the $690,000 cost of B.C.’s new employer health tax — something other city departments were not required to do.
The decision to disband the crime-reduction unit follows an earlier move to eliminate front-desk service hours on evenings and weekends.
Manak said more changes are coming and will be outlined in a “transformation” report slated for release next month.
— with a file from Bill Cleverley
