POLICE AND DOUGHNUTS GO TOGETHER LIKE A HORSE AND CARRIAGE

O.K. I admit it. That above headline is provocative and inflammatory. My bad! Today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record has a front page story in the Local Section titled " "Fed up" officers departing force". This is a serious article written by Frances Barrick, although from the viewpoint primarily of Bruce Tucker, head of the Waterloo Regional Police Association. To balance this article she has also interviewed Matt Torigan, Chief of our Regional Police. According to Mr. Tucker, police are quitting our force due to staff shortages and increased workload. Chief Torrigan's tepid endorsement of this assessment is as follows: "If people are telling him they are leaving because of lack of resources and increased workload, I will have to believe that".

Further Mr. Tucker indicates that last summer there were shifts which only had six or seven officers working out of each of the three detachments (presumably Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge). I find this statement extraordinary. Our Regional policing has a budget way over one hundred million dollars and we had only six or seven front line officers on duty ? If that statement is correct then something is horribly wrong. My understanding is that our Regional force consists of hundreds of officers not dozens. What exactly is going on here? My next thought is this: all the available statistics indicate that crime across Canada and in Waterloo Region is decreasing not increasing. This is despite tough economic times and an ever increasing population.

Perhaps there might be a little rhetoric going on here? According to Ms. Barrick " The solution, Tucker said, is Chief Matt Torigan's plan to hire 30 more officers next year." Of course this is only 30 front line officers. Chief Torigan's plan also includes 22 civilians and 10 special constables above the 30 front line officers for a total increased expenditure of 1.8 million dollars. Am I the only one who sees a wee bit of a pattern here? Does not the Teachers' Union, oh excuse me Teachers' Association, not routinely march in step to either Board or Provincial calls for smaller class sizes and increased budgets, all at the same time that enrollment of children is decreasing? The good news to date is that the civilian oversight Police Board and Regional government have been slow to embrace this proposed increase. I suggest that they would be wise to continue serious scrutiny of this proposed expansion.