Owen Sound council resoundingly rejects 'defund police' motion

City Coun. John Tamming failed to get any support from his council colleagues Monday night for his motion to effectively “defund” the Owen Sound Police Service by 30 per cent.

Council voted 7-1 against the motion, which would have seen council notify the police board that it will not approve any future police budget that exceeds $7.5 million and to direct staff to apply the budgetary savings to both tax savings and to enhanced supports for those with addictions, mental health challenges and the homeless.

“I think it’s a sad day for Owen Sound that we didn’t use this opportunity,” Tamming said just before council’s recorded vote.

He said his motion was a chance for council to cut the city’s policing costs, which now account for more than 28 per cent of Owen Sound’s operating budget, while redirecting the funds to provide more help to vulnerable people in the community.

“This motion is, as they say, a two-fer. We get a bit of tax relief on the one hand and we get to enhance our downtown core, we get to apply the savings to a homelessness initiative and we get to help the downtown population with enhanced mental health and social supports,” he said.

Councillors who voted against the motion voiced concerns about the impact the 30 per cent cut would have on policing in Owen Sound.

Mayor Ian Boddy said the 30 per cent figure is an arbitrary one and would be an “extremely high” reduction.

He served notice at the end of Monday’s meeting that he will be presenting a motion that, if approved, would direct city manager Tim Simmonds to present to council recommended terms of reference for a new task force that would discuss policing and ways to improve supports for those with mental health issues.

“The whole idea is, we’ve got a community safety and wellness plan committee already working on this and we need to hear back from them. We’ve got a police board that’s recognizing that we want to look at different ways of policing, the police want to look at different ways of policing. So let’s have the grown-up discussion and see where we can get. And it’s not going for a certain number. It’s going for a quality of policing and determining what level of policing the community wants. I think that’s the starting point,” he said.

In discussing Tamming’s motion, Coun. Marion Koepke, a member of the Owen Sound Police Service board, said since about 90 per cent of the police service’s budget covers wages and benefits, there isn’t much that can be cut.

“Other alternatives or solutions need to be discussed prior to any rash cutting of the police budget by 30 per cent with these funds being directed towards mental health,” she said.

Koepke said the number of police officers per service, in accordance with provincial averages, equates to about 1.85 officers per 1,000 people. Owen Sound had 40 sworn officers in 2010 and 37 in 2020, she said.

“Owen Sound is operating just under the minimum standard threshold of number of officers, particularly when the population to be policed does not equate to just residents who live in Owen Sound, but all others who come into or through Owen Sound,” she said.

Coun. Brock Hamley said Tamming is “using” the current events happening in the United States – the epicentre of the defund police movement – to slash the police services’ budget by almost $4 million.

That cut would “effectively cripple the police services’ ability to protect our community,” he said.

“There is such a thing as too far and I cannot support this motion,” he said.

But Tamming said he has not linked his motion “in any way with the thought that the local police are caught up in the racial issues” seen in the United States.

“I have the highest respect for the local police along those lines. I’m not aware of any systemic racism and it’s never come to my attention. That is not grounding this motion,” he said.

“Defunding police” has been a demand of the Black Lives Matter movement – amplified by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The slogan doesn’t mean stripping all funding from police departments. Instead, it’s a call to reallocate a portion of police funds to community supports for vulnerable people.

Tamming served notice June 15 that he would be presenting his “defund” motion at the June 29 meeting.

But at Monday’s meeting, he asked council to delay the vote and discussion until July 13, which is when the city intends to hold its first in-person council meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic forced Owen Sound in March to hold its meetings electronically.

Tamming said the only reason he wanted to postpone the motion was so council could debate the issue in person.

Council rejected Tamming’s request to delay the vote.

The motion presented Monday said that much police work involves the “addicted, the mentally fragile and the homeless, for whom there simply are not enough social supports.”

It said the city’s police budget has increased by at least 35 per cent from 2010 to 2020 and now accounts for about 28 per cent of the tax burden in Owen Sound. However, over that same period, the cost of living index increased by only 17 per cent, the population and size of Owen Sound have remained about the same and crime has declined substantially, the motion says.

It also says the police board has proven itself unable or unwilling to seriously reduce any of its spending, while council has also proven itself unable to force police services to seriously reduce its spending.

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