Will increasing police spending reduce crime?

Conservative think yes. Lefties think no.  Or maybe you just don’t like “Men Giving Men Jobs”  like Premier Ford, who raised police wages while freezing nursing wages.

The reality is that the 2026 annual Police Services budget is $1.7B, up from $1.17B when Mayor Chow released her first budget in 2024. So, maybe?

Actually, it matters what they are spending the budget on. Some politicians would have you believe that 2 people driving around in a car for 7 hours will keep us safer. The book “The Crisis in Canadian Policing” by John Sewell and Christopher Williams points out research that says otherwise. That activity is just symbolic.

In the past 2 years, the Police have focused on car theft through working with other police forces, and car theft has gone down significantly. Homicide is down, and other theft is up, as are cybercrime and hate crimes. Criminals don’t even have to meet us IRL to steal from us. We’d like to see reductions on all these crimes.

Toronto city council does not review the detailed police budget so we are not sure what they are spending the money on. We should make sure we are spending money on things that experts know will reduce crime. That is what has to change.