Mayor Travale VS The Boys In Blue.

So the Norfolk County Mayor Dennis Travale just can't stop talking about the grief that the OPP costs keep giving him.  With the Cops expecting a raise of 8.8% this year and the Mayor stomping his feet about this being unsustainable let's put the numbers to the test, shall we?

The table below summarizes the Police Services cost as compared to the total County cost on a whole.

2007 / 2009 / 2013 the Cops had or will have received substantial increases to their budget.  2008 was a very meager year for an increase and likely the result of the Great Recession (The County was not belt tightening though) .  This was likely a deal struck to spread the increase over 2 years.  With below average increases in the years 2010-1012 it would seem that this years increase is inline. (average $592k per year)

Year	Police Services	Total County Cost	% of Total Gov Cost	Increase $ Per Year
2013	$14,396,451	$160,000,000	9%	$1,164,419
2012	$13,232,032	$156,343,787	8%	$594,605
2011	$12,637,427	$152,538,893	8%	$569,482
2010	$12,067,945	$173,824,701	7%	$488,818
2009	$11,579,127	$169,246,526	7%	$1,254,698
2008	$10,324,429	$172,971,946	6%	$104,795
2007	$10,219,634	$154,528,939	7%	$1,133,750
2006	$9,085,884	$143,018,413	6%	n/a

The above table isn't a true reading on the cost of the Boys in Blue though because they do bring in revenue.  This revenue comes in the shape of fines that show up on the income side of the County's Income Statement.

In the table below the first 'Per Capita' column is the amount each Citizen pays for Policing.  If you apply the income from Fines you can see the reduction of cost as well as the Per Citizen cost in the far right column.

Year	Per Capita	Fines	Cost After Fines	Per Capita
2013	$229	n/a	n/a	n/a
2012	$210	$2,600,781	$10,631,251	$169
2011	$201	$2,555,777	$10,081,650	$160
2010	$192	$2,600,075	$9,467,870	$150
2009	$184	$2,109,883	$9,469,244	$150
2008	$164	$2,091,374	$8,233,055	$131
2007	$162	$1,964,454	$8,255,180	$131
2006	$144	$1,943,343	$7,142,541	$113

The new proposed cost of $14,396,451 (estimated) would be offset by $2.6M (estimated) per year in fine revenue resulting in a total cost of $11,796,451 or $187 each.

Basically add $18 this year per person. Doesn't seem that unreasonable does it?  To fill in the CN Rail over pass on Highway 24 it cost each person $30.  It's close enough to a bridge so the cost will balloon like all bridge/culvert projects the Roads Department takes on.

If you mention the 8 million dollars going to the Planning Department each year the Mayor becomes almost as irate as he is when the Cops are asking for more loot.

With his previous Military background maybe the Mayor has a way to 'Plan' people into Law & Order?

Since we've determined that the Police Department isn't exactly the bank breaking business the Mayor would have you believe, let's see how our FIVE-0 does at taking a bite out of crime.

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We're going to pull some facts from statscan and compare 2 other areas in Canada with similar populations.

Police Service	Population	Overall Crime Severity Index		Violent Crime Severity Index		Non-violent Crime Severity Index
		value	rank	value	rank	value	rank
Norfolk County, Ont.	64,592	52.5	184	39.1	185	57.7	176
Granby, Que.	64,314	59.6	161	53.4	140	62	167
Strathcona, Alta.	64,002	54.1	179	35.4	193	61.4	170
Ontario		61.1		73.4		56.4

The Crime Severity Index is standardized to 100 for Canada in base year 2006 vs 2011.

Rank is a scale from 1-239 based on populations over 10,000. The higher the number the safer the community.

Crime rate is expressed as a rate per 100,000 population. It is calculated by summing all criminal incidents excluding Traffic and Drug offenses.

Crime Severity Index: each offence is assigned a weight, derived from sentences handed down by criminal courts. The more serious the average sentence, the higher the weight for that offence. All offences, including traffic and drug offences, are included here.

So, it looks as though our Boys In Blue are doing their job and crime rates continue to fall.  Money well spent! We'd like to send kudos to Inspector Zvonko Horvat for a job well done and protecting us all.  The Auxiliary Officers collected 7,123lbs of food and should be thanked for their efforts as well.  Maybe buy them a Timmies while they are freezing their butts off and keeping our roads safe during the Festive RIDE Program.

Constable Ed Sanchuk helps with the PR work, even if he sings like a girl - maybe.

We don't hear often enough about the Police visiting local school kids but maybe it just doesn't make the newspapers.  Simcoe Reformer does, quite frequently but not always, have a habit of covering the other side of the coin.

Hopefully with the reduction in crime and overall operational efficiencies, Inspector Horvat can keep his department in good fiscal order in the future.

If Council needs to obtain more money for their overly exuberant spending perhaps they should look at the Poor and Elderly again like they did the year after they were elected.  In 2011 Council cut overall spending by $21,285,808 with ($19,217,694) coming from Social and Family Services.  Another ($7,155,694) was cut from the same department the following year.  Now that's a crime that needs to be investigated.

Year	Social and Family Services	Cuts
2012	$37,571,850	$(7,155,694)
2011	$44,727,544	$(19,217,694)
2010	$63,945,238
2009	$58,796,390
	20% of Norfolk is Seniors

Maybe all the Mayors schmoozing keeps these crimes from being reported.