Councillors question $2M special constable plan after unseen report

Some politicians say they were asked to support the proposal before seeing the consultant’s report.

London politicians are raising concerns about the growing cost of policing and say they were asked to vote on a proposal based on a consultant’s report they had not seen, even though it had been in city administration’s hands for nearly a year. City council’s community and protective services committee this week supported a push by Mayor Josh Morgan for staff to report on a consultant’s study recommending the city hire 11 special constables at an annual cost of about $2 million. “We were asked to vote on a program we had not seen,” said Ward 9 Coun.

Anna Hopkins. “I have never seen that happen before. I was thinking, ‘What is going on here?’

I was not going to approve that.” The push to spend more on public safety comes after council last year approved a $672-million budget for London police that includes hiring 189 more staff and police. The service now has more than 900 employees.

“Where will we get the money for this? The police budget was already high,” Hopkins said. The city now spends $2.9 million on security at events and public spaces, such as community centres.

Hopkins said staff told her the proposed $2 million for special constables would be in addition to that amount. “Why are London Police not in this conversation? We gave them a lot of money; why can’t they use it for this?”

City staff said at the committee meeting that the full consultant’s report will be presented to the next city council meeting on July 21. Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow also questioned how the matter came before the committee this week.

The $65,000 report was submitted to city hall in October but was not released to councillors, Trosow said. It was prepared by the Community Safety Knowledge Alliance, which researches and promotes community policing. Asking councillors to request a staff report on a study they had not been allowed to see does not sit well with Trosow.

“We paid a lot of money for a study we did not see, and are asking for a staff report on it without seeing it first. That is not a good way to proceed,” he said. “I do not know why we are doing this.

I am not in favour.” In a letter to committee members, Morgan summarized the study and pushed for staff to report on hiring special constables. The study was commissioned by city administration “in response to challenges and pressures associated with increased needs for safety and security measures across the community,” Morgan wrote.

Morgan rejected the notion that additional policing of the downtown and community spaces can be done by London police. “London Police do a very specific job we will not ask special constables to do,” he said during an interview on Tuesday. “We don’t have London Police at community centres, we have private security.

Special constables can fill that role.” According to the Ontario Special Constable Association, special constables are peace officers who can be granted some or all of the powers of police. Morgan said London’s special constables could be given authority to lay charges, enforce trespass laws and address open drug use.

“We will not pay full sworn officers to guard community centres,” he said. If a confrontation becomes serious or violent, they would call police, he added. Morgan also rejected the suggestion that recent increases to the police budget could fund the work envisioned for special constables, saying those investments were needed to improve policing.

“We made a specific investment in policing. Our response time was not great, we had backlogs of calls, there were more break-ins and violent crime and we are now below the national average and the numbers are coming down,” he said. Trosow argued the city should instead invest more in mental health services and support for homeless people if public safety is the concern.

“I am adamantly, dead-set opposed to this,” he said of spending $2 million on special constables. “There are other things we can do with $2 million to make people feel safer.” He pointed to Carepoint, a supervised consumption site that closed, as one example.

Western University, Fanshawe College and the London police already employ special constables. They typically wear Kevlar vests and carry batons, handcuffs and pepper spray.