Protesters challenge Hamilton police department’s proposed budget increase

Frustrated, tired, and angry Hamiltonians voiced their concerns at Monday’s budget meeting over the police department’s proposed budget increase of just over $195M.

READ MORE: Hamilton budget meeting ends abruptly after protesters fill gallery

Council members that were discussing the budget stayed silent and eventually ended the meeting. Mayor Andrea Horwath, who wasn’t in attendance responded saying the demonstrators were, “disrupting a peaceful discussion, shouting people down, and refusing to listen to one another cannot replace respectful dialogue.”

James Lambert, one of the organizers of the demonstration says, “the system is designed to keep a certain number of people in desperation and so how are you supposed to change a system like that? By complying with that system’s rules? I think what we saw last night, if anything, was a show of frustration at how undemocratic the process of delegating has actually become.”

Hamilton police’s 2023 budget would see the largest single-year increase at $12M. Hamilton police Chief Frank Bergen says, however, that a majority of those funds are for infrastructure and salaries, fixed costs, leaving police with just over $1.6M for other needs.

In total, the Hamilton police budget makes up around 18 per cent of the city’s total budget, “we have municipalities that surround us that are at 22 per cent, 25 per cent. Waterloo and York Region are at 32 per cent of the levy of cost of policing,” Bergen said.

Chief Bergen says crime has diversified and intensified recently, resulting in police doing more, “that spike of gun violence? We had 291 firearms that were taken off our streets in 2022. Violence of whether it’s at the person brandishing a knife. You’re seeing the carjackings. You’re seeing the amount of auto thefts that we’re dealing with, the drug proliferation, the drug seizures are just unheard of. What we’re seeing, our assist ambulance calls are growing just shy of 10,000 last year alone. Our officers are administered naloxone, just shy of 600 since the inception of Narcan.’

That being said, Lambert questions whether giving police more actually solves those problems, “with a budget of $200 million behind them. Meanwhile, we’ve spent a quarter of that actually trying to provide people with housing. Is that really a wise allocation of our funds?”

Lambert and those that share his concerns seem to be resonating with several council members, with at least three tweeting that they don’t intend to support the budget.

“I think it’s really unprecedented and I think it speaks to the power of what we can achieve when we organize together and when we reject a set of rules that are designed to keep us quiet and to keep us respectful.”

Full interview with Chief Bergen: