I was recently reviewing annual reports for the Lethbridge Police Service when I noticed a few things.
Here is a look at how much LPS spent on wages and benefits for the 5 most recent years plus the number of cops for each year.
| Wages & benefits | # of cops | Wages per # of cops | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $31,210,000 | 161 | $193,851 |
| 2019 | $33,700,000 | 168 | $200,595 |
| 2020 | $34,400,000 | 166 | $207,229 |
| 2021 | $34,400,000 | 168 | $204,762 |
| 2022 | $35,900,000 | 162 | $221,605 |
Now, keep in mind that wages aren’t spend on just cops. LPS also employs about 90 civilians. So the final column is a ratio metric; it doesn’t represent the average wage of each cop.
That being said, what we clearly see is that how much LPS spends on wages and benefits, relative to the number of cops they have, has increased in 3 of the last 4 years. In fact, LPS has increased spending on wages and salaries by over 14% over the last 5 years.
And you’ll notice how much LPS spent in 2022 increased despite, technically, having fewer cops. They spent more last year on wages and benefits than any other year over the last 5 years, despite having the second lost number of cops.
So, since the LPS was spending more in salaries and benefits relative to the number of cops they had, surely that means we saw less crime, right?
Well, let’s look at calls for service.
| Calls for service | # of cops | Calls per cop | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 34,610 | 161 | 214.97 |
| 2019 | 35,993 | 168 | 214.24 |
| 2020 | 36,667 | 166 | 220.89 |
| 2021 | 36,143 | 168 | 215.14 |
| 2022 | 36,779 | 162 | 227.03 |
Well, calls for service didn’t go down. Instead, it increased, in terms of absolute numbers of calls, as well as the number of calls per cop. Both numbers were at their highest level over the last 5 years.
Remember, however, that calls for services doesn’t necessarily equate with crime. It’s just every time someone phones the cops about something. It could be a break in or assault, sure, but it could also be someone complaining that someone is in an area of the city they don’t think they should be in.
So, let’s look at criminal charges then.
The 2018 annual report didn’t include a summary of the total number of Criminal Code charges in Lethbridge, but the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 annual reports do.
In 2019, Lethbridge cops laid 10,505 Criminal Code charges. That increased 5.45% to 11,078 the following year. However, in 2021, that dropped to 8,058 in 2021 and even further to 7,127 last year.
To be clear, this represents only those crimes that people were arrested for. So, the number of crimes committed could be even higher. Plus, not ever charge leads to sentencing; some charges are eventually dropped during trial.
Either way, fewer criminal charges is a good thing, right?
Of course. That being said, it’s also important to keep track of the types of criminal charges being laid.
Here, take a look at these violent crimes over the last 5 years.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Attempted murder | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Sexual assault | 131 | 154 | 119 | 113 | 133 |
| Assault | 1224 | 1231 | 1141 | 1216 | 1423 |
| Child sex offences | 13 | 23 | 26 | 22 | 27 |
| Robbery | 60 | 59 | 47 | 57 | 46 |
| Domestic violence | 1599 | 1779 | 1667 | 1820 | 1752 |
In 5 of the 7 areas, Lethbridge saw an increase in charges laid compared to the previous year. Only robbery and domestic violence had lower charges in 2021. Even then, domestic violence charges were higher last year than they were in 2018, despite dropping by 3.7% last year.
Now, let’s look at property crime.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arson | 5 | 15 | 28 | 41 | 14 |
| Break & enter | 874 | 1027 | 1072 | 1045 | 965 |
| Theft/shoplifting | 4830 | 4901 | 4160 | 3464 | 4002 |
| Vehicle theft | 265 | 274 | 224 | 244 | 375 |
| Attempted vehicle theft | 32 | 36 | 24 | 14 | 46 |
| Possession of stolen property | 196 | 223 | 208 | 142 | 360 |
| Fraud | 732 | 746 | 725 | 577 | 978 |
| Mischief | 868 | 867 | 875 | 1026 | 1302 |
Between 2021 and 2022, Lethbridge Police Service laid more charges in 6 of the above 8 areas, with only arson and break and enter seeing a drop.
Compared to 2018, the number of charges laid by LPS in every area except for theft/shoplifting, which saw a decrease
It’s interesting that the overall number of Criminal Code charges laid last year dropped, yet they increased in the majority of specific areas reported by LPS.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that the number of charges laid increased between 2019 and 2020, despite LPS spending more on salaries, relative to the number of cops they have.
However, there is one big disclaimer with this.
Three of four years is a pretty small sample size, so it’s difficult to see if this is part of a trend or just anomaly. I would’ve loved to have explored a longer period of data, but I couldn’t locate any annual reports older than 2018.
So, while the LPS spent more on salaries and wages and Lethbridge saw more violent and property crime, it’s possible it could just be an anomaly.
And to be clear, I’m not saying that paying cops more leads to more crime. I’m saying that paying cops more doesn’t seem to make a difference.
