Summary
This report has two components. The first is an analytical component which examines trends in police personnel and expenditures at the national, provincial and census metropolitan area (CMA) levels, including data by rank and gender. Appropriate context is also included in terms of recent developments in the police community such as community policing and private security.
The second component is a tabular component which summarizes crime, personnel and expenditure statistics for all municipal police departments in Canada. Key ratios such as per officer strengths, per capita costs, clearance rates, and violent and property crime rates are included for each force.
Justice issues addressed: Policing accounts for approximately 60% of all justice expenditures. While crime remains high on the list of public concerns, governments have been forced to make cuts to most public sector areas, including policing. The analysis of trends in key ratios such as per capita costs, population per officer, police to civilian ratios, and the number of offences per officer can help shed some light on how the police community has responded to this changing environment.