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Municipal Politics

I heard today Edmonton's 'cop to pop' numbers. That's the number of sworn police officers related to population.

Edmonton has 1 officer per 574 people. By comparison, Calgary has 1 officer per 650 people. Some cities in Canada are 700+.

Policing remains Edmonton's highest single expenditure in the budget. Also keep in mind the Edmonton region is home to eight federal and provincial incarceration/detention facilities with a total inmate capacity of 3,405. Five of the incarceration facilities are federal, and three are provincial. The largest federal facility is the maximum security Edmonton Institution, with an inmate capacity of 324. The largest provincial facility is the Edmonton Remand Centre, with an inmate capacity of 1,952.

In contrast, the City of Calgary’s population is 31% greater than Edmonton’s, but has far fewer incarceration facilities: Calgary has only two provincial facilities, with a total inmate capacity of 1,111; Edmonton’s inmate capacity (3,405) is 306% greater than Calgary’s.

More people are released daily from prison/detention centres in Edmonton than any other city in Canada. One study of released people shows 53% of the custody cohort was reconvicted within one year, 62% within two years and 66% within three years.

Edmonton's police budget has increased 20% in past 3 years.
 
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TAS said:
I heard today Edmonton's 'cop to pop' numbers. That's the number of sworn police officers related to population.

Edmonton has 1 officer per 574 people. By comparison, Calgary has 1 officer per 650 people. Some cities in Canada are 700+.

Policing remains Edmonton's highest single expenditure in the budget. Also keep in mind the Edmonton region is home to eight federal and provincial incarceration/detention facilities with a total inmate capacity of 3,405. Five of the incarceration facilities are federal, and three are provincial. The largest federal facility is the maximum security Edmonton Institution, with an inmate capacity of 324. The largest provincial facility is the Edmonton Remand Centre, with an inmate capacity of 1,952.

In contrast, the City of Calgary’s population is 31% greater than Edmonton’s, but has far fewer incarceration facilities: Calgary has only two provincial facilities, with a total inmate capacity of 1,111; Edmonton’s inmate capacity (3,405) is 306% greater than Calgary’s.

More people are released daily from prison/detention centres in Edmonton than any other city in Canada. One study of released people shows 53% of the custody cohort was reconvicted within one year, 62% within two years and 66% within three years.

Edmonton's police budget has increased 20% in past 3 years.
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I buy it, but where are these numbers from?
 
TAS said:
I heard today Edmonton's 'cop to pop' numbers. That's the number of sworn police officers related to population.

Edmonton has 1 officer per 574 people. By comparison, Calgary has 1 officer per 650 people. Some cities in Canada are 700+.

Policing remains Edmonton's highest single expenditure in the budget. Also keep in mind the Edmonton region is home to eight federal and provincial incarceration/detention facilities with a total inmate capacity of 3,405. Five of the incarceration facilities are federal, and three are provincial. The largest federal facility is the maximum security Edmonton Institution, with an inmate capacity of 324. The largest provincial facility is the Edmonton Remand Centre, with an inmate capacity of 1,952.

In contrast, the City of Calgary’s population is 31% greater than Edmonton’s, but has far fewer incarceration facilities: Calgary has only two provincial facilities, with a total inmate capacity of 1,111; Edmonton’s inmate capacity (3,405) is 306% greater than Calgary’s.

More people are released daily from prison/detention centres in Edmonton than any other city in Canada. One study of released people shows 53% of the custody cohort was reconvicted within one year, 62% within two years and 66% within three years.

Edmonton's police budget has increased 20% in past 3 years.
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I think it has been noted before, but with all the nearby prison/detention centres, this is just another indication that Edmonton is being treated as the dumping ground for Alberta's social problems.
 
policyenthusiast said:
I buy it, but where are these numbers from?
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Calgary city police are currently presenting their budget request to the city council there and shared the cop to pop numbers.

The other numbers are from Coun. Janz.

And St. Albert mayor Cathy Heron shared the stat about more people released daily from incarceration in Edmonton than any other city on the Ryan Jespersen Show on a recent panel discussion about lack of provincial funding. She felt bad for us.
 
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policyenthusiast said:
It's probably hard to move a prison.
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There were discussions about swapping the historic old RCMP building in the Quarters for a potential new facility at the north end of Blatchford abutting the Yellowed where it would have provided a visual and noise buffer to the highway and railroad yards (an upgrade for both the city and the facility). It would have given the city a nice historical anchor to the SE corner of Quarters that would have changed the accessibility and perception of everything in the vicinity.
 
kcantor said:
There were discussions about swapping the historic old RCMP building in the Quarters for a potential new facility at the north end of Blatchford abutting the Yellowed where it would have provided a visual and noise buffer to the highway and railroad yards (an upgrade for both the city and the facility). It would have given the city a nice historical anchor to the SE corner of Quarters that would have changed the accessibility and perception of everything in the vicinity.
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In Council? It sounds far-fetched that they would want to bring such a property value-crushing facility to Blatchford.
 
kcantor said:
There were discussions about swapping the historic old RCMP building in the Quarters for a potential new facility at the north end of Blatchford abutting the Yellowed where it would have provided a visual and noise buffer to the highway and railroad yards (an upgrade for both the city and the facility). It would have given the city a nice historical anchor to the SE corner of Quarters that would have changed the accessibility and perception of everything in the vicinity.
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You are right, this is the sort of thing that could actually give a real boost to the struggling Quarters area. I hope this is eventually moved.
 
policyenthusiast said:
In Council? It sounds far-fetched that they would want to bring such a property value-crushing facility to Blatchford.
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To be fair, it was discussed early in the planning phases for the area before there was a Blatchford - a time when there were no property values to crush there. Even today I’m not sure the negative impact would be that much worse than being next to Yellowhead and the railroad yards.

Even if there was some negative impact I’m pretty damn sure it would be a whole lot less than the negative impact it has on the Quarters and on its ongoing sterilization of attractive historic structures on a river valley view site.
 
David A said:
You are right, this is the sort of thing that could actually give a real boost to the struggling Quarters area. I hope this is eventually moved.
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I think it’s probably now just another one of those things in Edmonton that should happen but never will.

There have been a number of two and three way swaps of land in Edmonton in the past (the Women’s Prison in the west end, Canada Place, The Armoury etc.) but they all took place when there was a level of cooperation between governments that I don’t see returning for a long time in the current climate.
 
I'm curious where Janz got that '20% increase in 3 years' argument. There were nationally union mandated wage increase, and they replaced the revenue lost when province took away photo radar, plus maybe a few other increases. I just don't know if that is 20% per how Janz presents it. Devil in the details.
 
Not sure if this belongs under municipal or provincial politics…
IMG_2602.jpeg
 
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