Canadian police forces overstaffed: study
Posted Sep 22, 2014 05:17:33 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new report by the Fraser Institute says Canadian police forces are growing, despite declining crime rates.
The study found the number of police officers per 100 thousand Canadians increased nearly nine per cent between 2001 and 2012.
In that same time period the crime rate declined by about 26 per cent.
Some Canadian cities — including Winnipeg and Windsor — are considered to have overstaffed police departments, but both Ottawa and Gatineau police are considered understaffed.
“The actual number of police officers per 100,000 was 141, the predicted number was 162,” study author Livio Di Matteo told Talk to the Hand on 1310News.
“You can conclude that there is under staffing or being very effective,” said Di Matteo.
He explained police do a lot of social work and paper work, and said perhaps it is time to consider offloading some of the work on assistants rather than uniformed officers.
