Saint John police commission warns about lack of officers

The chronic understaffing of the Saint John Police Force could affect the health of front-line officers, according to the president of the police commission.

The city is looking at cutting $270,000 from the police force`s budget next year.The proposed cut would effectively give police less funds than werebudgeted for 2015.

"We really felt like going in at zero per cent, it was the right thing to do for the city," said Paquet.

"I don't know how we would be able to manage with a cut to our budget."

The department was not asking for an increase in 2016.

Paquet says it is vital the department be allowed to replace some of the officers who left over the past year.

There are seven vacant positions on the force.

That ability to protect our citizens is in question in our belief.- Peter Alexander, Saint John Firefighter Association

She says by cutting costs elsewhere the force would have been able to hire four new officers even with no budget increase.

She says the proposed $270,000cut would kill that opportunity.

"We absolutely need to start hiring some of our officers back.This is to the point where I think we're going to be running into some real issues on the front line in terms of health and wellness."

Too much overtime

"You might work a night shift, be expected to go to court the next day and back in for night shift the next night," said LaFrance.

"It's having a huge drain on our manpower and our people."

It is also expected the department will generate $150,000in revenue through such things as training programs for firefighters from outside departments.

But Peter Alexander, the president of the Saint John Firefighters Association, said he is concerned aboutthe department's ability to serve the needs of a population in a spread-out city.

"We can't get to those scenes as quick as we possibly can with the amount of people that we need."

Saint John received a $1 million reduction to its annual Community Grant from the New Brunswick government.That cutwiped out more than half the modest, 1.5 per cent growth in the municipality's taxassessment base.

The proposed $151.5 million operating budget for 2016 is up just $400,000over this year's total.