As city council prepared to vote to increase the city's complement of RCMP officers on Jan. 18, Mayor Lyn Hall indicated that conversations with the chief of police were far from over.
"We had a conversation when Supt. (Warren) Brown was here about $1.4 million in overtime and I think we need to continue to talk about that piece," said Hall, adding that "$1.4 million is substantial."
The city is on the hook for overtime costs, the same way it has to pay for 90 per cent of all local policing costs. Though the contract for the RCMP is between the province and the federal government, communities of more than 15,000 people that use the RCMP as their municipal police force are the ones paying the province's 90 per cent share of the costs.
According to an emailed response from a city spokesperson, overtime costs generally balance out in the police protection budget with the savings realized from vacant positions.
That $1.4 million figure was first presented to members of council when Brown made his first pitch for more officers back at a November finance and audit committee meeting.
There's a convoluted trio of numbers that make up the RCMP budget - the quantity of RCMP members the city can have through its contract with the provincial government, the number of members the city budgets for and the number of RCMP officers that are actually on the payroll.
According to Brown's presentation, in 2014 there was the usual contracted number of 128 (as it had been for the previous decade), the 121 officers budgeted for (since 2009) and 119 actual officers on staff.
Those 119 racked up $1.425 million in overtime, which is more than $100,000 accumulated in 2013 and more than $460,000 noted in 2012.
The next-highest overtime figure was $1.33 million in 2010, when the actual number of officers on staff was 122 - the only time in the 10 years presented that staffing levels hit (and surpassed) the budgeted figure.
"I anticipate we'll exceed that (in 2015) because of the number of homicides we've had and some other major offences that we've had," Brown said.
"Again, all that to say we are being as efficient as we can with resources however with the number of resources we're just far too pressured to meet the volumes of crime and the pressures we have in the community."
In late 2014, the detachment asked for and received an on-paper increase to the contract amount from 128 to 135 in an attempt to provide enough so-called hard vacancies (actual empty positions, as opposed to positions vacated due to parental leave or injury, or soft vacancies) to fill those 121 spots.
That, mixed with the budget increase, will help fill the vacancies, city manager Kathleen Soltis told council on Monday night.
The new hires will go towards filling the existing gaps in the Prince George RCMP's general duty section.
At a Dec. 14 finance and audit committee meeting, Hall asked the superintendent if adding the extra manpower could help in bringing down the $1.4 million overtime figure.
"I mean, that's a hell of a number," Hall said.
But Brown said he couldn't give a concrete graph or figure.
Proactive measures such as the units focused on downtown safety, domestic violence and mental health as well as a 12 per cent vacancy rate due to parental leave, illness and injury have pulled officers from what's supposed to be four 16-member general duty watch shifts.
This leaves nine or 10 people on a shift doing work that's meant for 16, said Brown.
"It's really hard to put a dollar amount because those nine people are now having to perhaps stay two to three to six hours to write up their files, to work overtime on custody reports on people who've been remanded," Brown said.
"If I have 12, 13, 14 people on the road, I may not have to pay that overtime for that member to stay. I may not have to pay that overtime for that member to come out."
But that doesn't take into account major incidents that may arise, he added.
