BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to 'Barrie police present 'large and significant' budget to council,' published Jan. 18.
The 2024 Barrie Police Service budget of $67.5 million, a 6.78 per cent increase, is another example of a city council — except for a couple of brave souls, Councillors Clare Riepma and Amy Courser — that is intimidated every year at budget time.
I agree with Coun. Courser, who states, “I do not buy into the premise that (policing) is a bill received that we must pay.”
The police service also received additional grant money from the provincial government in 2023, about half a million dollars for front-line policing and video surveillance. The increased use of photo radar lessens the load for police traffic patrols.
Every person employed in the public/private sector has a job description, performance and accountability process.
We, the funders (taxpayers), have a right to know where our hard-earned dollars are used and a public review of the police budget is necessary to enhance public confidence in our police service.
It would be refreshing to see city council hold the police service to the same standard as other agencies when they present their annual budgets.
Ken Robertson
Barrie
