You say cutting the police budget reduces the number of cops “which could lead to an increase in crime and disorder as we have seen in many instances in police since some jurisdictions started cutting police budgets.” But, again, you don’t provide any evidence of a connection between an increase in crime and defunding. You also don’t mention that most of the US cities that cut police budgets in 2020 restored or increased them in 2021. Instead, you provide a link to a story about Minneapolis City Council defeating a November 2021 motion that proposed replacing the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety (DPS) and eliminating minimum police funding requirements. It’s not surprising these failed since 2021 saw US cities re-funding police.

You say police are the primary responders in emergency situations such as natural disasters, active shooter incidents, and medical emergencies, adding that, for mental health emergencies, there is no solid system in place to call other than the police. You say cutting the OPS budget would hinder their ability to respond to these types of events quickly and effectively. We do need an effective emergency response service but are armed officers authorized to kill people the best ones to be doing it?

You say police play an important role in protecting vulnerable populations, such as victims of hate crimes and domestic violence and that police budget cuts would reduce resources and potentially put these populations at greater risk. This suggests the police are doing a good job addressing hate crimes and domestic violence, but the evidence shows otherwise. The OPS 2021 hate crime clearance rate was just 21%. Regarding domestic violence, according to Ottawa police data, only 14% of domestic violence reports to police resulted in charges being laid in 2020…meaning police didn’t lay charges 86% of the time. In February 2017, the Globe and Mail published the results of its “Unfounded” series that found that for every 5 women who report sexual assault to police, the police assume one is lying. As a result, only 5% of survivors of sexual violence ever report their assault to police. That’s why one of the goals of Ottawa’s Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan is to have an alternate reporting system for survivors, which, as the OPS’ new Community Safety and Wellbeing Director, you should know.

Tellingly, you don’t mention the OPS’ role in addressing violent crime. Could this be because the OPS’ own data shows they spend less than 1% of their time responding to Priority 1 calls where there’s imminent threat of bodily harm? Meaning, armed OPS officers spend 99% of their time doing things like directing traffic, babysitting construction sites and responding to mental health calls. They also spend much of their time over-policing marginalized people including moving unhoused people away from businesses and using force disproportionately on Black, Middle Eastern and Indigenous people (again, according to their own data).

You worry that “if communities are left without adequate protection and support, it could result in a loss of trust in government and other public institutions.” And that, “..this could lead to increased crime as some might take up justice in their hands.” What actually continues to erode trust in government and public institutions is the Ottawa police continuing to harm and kill marginalized people – and the Ottawa Police Services Board rewarding their behaviour with large annual increases. The April 2022 report, Troubling Encounters: Ottawa Residents’ Experience of Policing, confirmed that racialized and low income Ottawa residents have extremely low levels of trust in the Ottawa police. In fact, the report states, “In short, for many people in this city, police do not contribute to individual or community safety, in fact, they appear to do the very opposite.”

We do agree that eliminating the Ottawa police without a clear plan for alternative forms of public safety and crime prevention could result in a vacuum of responsibility and leave communities without adequate protection. That’s why we’re calling for a reimagining of public safety that includes fully funded alternatives that will keep us all safer.