Why are there still questions about a $5 million increase to the Vancouver police’s budget

What happened: Questions continue to swirl around how $5 million was approved for an operation to improve public safety in the Downtown Eastside, after the chair of the police board said he had no idea when the money was approved. Now, Green party city councillor Pete Fry says he’s filed a freedom of information request to get more information, according to CBC. 

Background: In February, Mayor Ken Sim and Vancouver Police Department Chief Adam Palmer announced $5 million at a press conference to tackle crime in the Downtown Eastside. It put additional officers in the community, as well as resources for clearing sidewalks and reducing weapons in the area, according to CBC. That’s on top of the police’s budget of $453 million in 2025. 

The problem: The Vancouver Police Board approves the police budget on an annual basis, and any changes must be submitted before March 1. Board members would then adjust the amount. But so far, no paper trail of this exists for this budget allocation.  

The reasoning: The mayor’s explanation for why the board hadn’t approved the budget has been quite vague. He told CBC it was a process issue. 

• “The VPD, they deal with their operational issues, and as a board, the VPD board, they basically review stuff and sometimes when there's communication challenges or whatever, you reassess and you improve them… We’re in a constant process,” said Sim. 

Controversy: In March, a whistleblower submitted a complaint to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner that management within the police had set arrest quotas for teams working in the Downtown Eastside. The Vancouver Police Board responded last week with a formal report outlining that the staff sergeant mentioned in the complaint was talking about performance measures, not a quota, according to CityNews. Assistant Supt. Matthew Harty called it “aspirational goals.” 

The police say the program is working, with a decline of 13 per cent in violent crime in the Downtown Eastside and Gastown, and 26 per cent in Strathcona, according to the Vancouver Sun. While the police also touted 414 arrest warrants and 79 gun seizures, they did not say how many resulted in convictions. 

• The executive director of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association said that while they are pleased with the results of the operation, the chronic systems-level challenges are still a problem. 

Yes, but: Yet it’s also worth mentioning that according to the police’s own data, violent crime across Vancouver, not just in those targeted areas, is at a 20-year low for the first three months of the year. Property crime in East Vancouver, which encompasses the Downtown Eastside, is up by 1.8 per cent compared to last year, while overall property crime across the city is down four per cent.

Why it matters: Money has to come from somewhere. Processes and procedures are important. There is of course a discussion to be had about whether processes get in the way of accomplishing things. But that’s beside the point. The mayor’s response has not been overly clear, as you can see from the quote above.