Free Speech Ain't Always Free

"Fair speech is more rare than the emerald that is found by slave-maidens on the pebbles"

- Ptah-Hotep (2500 BC approx.).

Fair speech might be rare, but "free speech" is everywhere and it's not free and it's costing taxpayers. To be clear: this is not an anti-protest post. It is a post about police budgets, a topic in the local news here lately, as people decry increases to the police budget at a time when they're also complaining about being vexed by property crime and disorder - phenomenon that also seem to be striking other cities across Canada.

Now, back to public order issues. To begin the process of figuring out what we're paying for policing protests, I reached out to one of the busiest sites* for protest activity and kindly requested some figures on public order deployments (they're also one of the most data-driven municipal services on the planet, so there's that). I asked Vancouver. Here are the numbers I received, along with my estimated costs**:

Protests

• In August 2024, Vancouver had 95 protest events, with dedicated Public Order Unit members deployed to 17 of them, requiring the staffing of 186 shifts;

A Constable with 4 years of service makes, on average, $121,992 p/a base salary or $58.65 per hour with a shift being either 11 or 12 hours. I'm using 11 here, so the cost is actually a bit higher. $645.15 per officer per shift x 186 shifts: $119,997.90 in August total.

What's particularly scary is that this is regular pay, not overtime pay. With staffing issues, sick days, annual vacation, training and other demands on public order and front line officers, we can expect that MOST of this will have to be staffed by overtime at double the rate***.

We also have to consider that this does not take into consideration the higher salary for public order commanders, so this is a conservative estimate.

• YTD in 2024, Vancouver has had 617 protest events, with dedicated Public Order Unit members deployed to 131 of them, requiring the staffing of 2034 shifts;

Same calculations: $959983.20 for 8 months this year. I think we can reasonably conclude that the overall costs will be over $2,000,000. Again, this is a conservative estimate. It also doesn't include special event deployments that are not paid for by the city or event organizers.

Now, you might say that $2,000,000 is a drop in the bucket when the bucket is Vancouver's overall police budget. But here's the other thing we also need to consider and, for me, it's the most important part: most police services across Canada do not have permanent, full-time public order units. Say, what? Yes, these are officers who are being pulled from patrol and other duties to work public order events. And, my own research suggests that in some cities officers are burnt out from public order duties and starting to decline the ever-present lure of overtime shifts. You know something is seriously wrong when officers don't even want over-time. I kinda get it, though. I mean, after all, nothing says FUN more than being screamed at for 11 or 12 hours straight, while people film you, hoping to get that viral video of "cops being evilz". And, of course, there's the doxxing and all of the social media and other forms of harassment (like the ninnies who showed up at the Peterborough Police station to wait for the army to come and arrest cops). Oh, and I almost forgot, along with near-constant protests comes the spate of complaints to oversight bodies about "two tiered policing", injustice, brutality, et cetera, et cetera.

Unfortunately, though, protests - especially those involving contentious political issues - have to be policed, if for no other than reason than to stop people from punching each other out on the streets and to avoid things like road and airport closures (hello New York and Chicago!). Not surprisingly, when this happens, other policing services start to degrade as the constant demands grind down the institution. So you, dear Municipal Taxpayer, have to ask yourself: if you want to keep your police budgets down, and your patrol response up, what are YOU willing to do without? Because, in the immortal words of a retired Sergeant in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, you can't keep demanding a "Cadillac service on a VW budget". Something has to give.

*I will probably have to revise these numbers multiple times because my math skills are sub-par. I admit it.

**Sorry, Toronto.

*** I have it from a reliable resource that I should just increase my estimates, because planned VPD public order deployments are always overtime, which is double pay. Spontaneous events are responded by by front line officers on standard pay. So, these numbers are LOW. That said, I stand behind what I said: when police refuse overtime there is something wrong with the system.