Mayor John Tory is proposing a $48.3 million budget increase for the Toronto Police Service to address citizen insecurity, he announced at a press conference today:
I am announcing to you today that the proposed 2023 city budget will have a substantial increase in community safety, one of our primary responsibilities is to keep our community and the people of Toronto safe. this will be reflected in a 4.3% increase in the police budget. that budget will be released today for the consideration of the police force and then will come back here to be included the overall city budget. I know people are very concerned about recent violence in our city and throughout the GTA, including the transit system, and I will be addressing that issue in the coming days, but the number of incidents is troubling and causing anxiety for our residents, so we must do everything in our power to address crime and make people feel safe in our city.
The city says the proposed funding brings the service's 2023 budget to just over $1.1 billion. In 2021, the police budget was about $1.076 billion.
If approved, the investment would see 200 more officers join the force.
At least 162 of those officers would be deployed in what the city described as "priority response units," 25 of which would be located downtown. Another 22 officers would work in major case management and 16 officers would be assigned to neighborhood community policing.
Tory made the announcement and added that he is no longer on the Toronto Police Services Board, which will meet to consider the proposal on Jan. 9, saying he hasn't been on the board for a "couple of months now. "