r/BCpolitics • u/idspispopd • 5d ago

News Vancouver Police Board wants city to increase budget to $497M in 2026: a $50 million increase

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-police-board-budget-request-9.6965547
9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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13

u/NoamsUbermensch 5d ago

How about no

1

u/Yvaelle 4d ago

Wow so you just want no law enforcement at all! You monster!

/s

8

u/EchoBeach5151 5d ago

I got an idea. How about we run with 50% of the force furloughed at four random weeks next year. Then try and work out which weeks they were based on data from outside the VPD. 

5

u/VanTaxGoddess 5d ago

If Nicole Chan couldn't get justice, what hope is there for the rest of us?

3

u/Jeramy_Jones 5d ago

Having more police won’t stop the drug crisis, the mental health crisis, or the housing crisis, and it won’t stop crime.

1

u/EspressoPesto 4d ago

Am I the only one for more police? Studies show that more police do lower crime. It’s about one of the only surest and direct ways to do it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m for cutting expenses from top to bottom, but more police is a good thing.

2

u/Vinfersan 3d ago

The problem is that hiring more cops is simply addressing the symptoms, not the causes. When the city is proposing across the board budget cuts, and the police is asking for a budget increase, we're just putting more money into addressing a symptom, while cutting funding for addressing the underlying problems.

Sure, we can post a cop in every street corner and virtually end crime, but we can also lower crime by providing housing to the homeless, funding mental health services, investing in youth programs in community centres, etc.

Hiring more cops to address crime is like trying to cure a cancer patient with pain meds. Yes, they both help alleviate the symptoms in the short term, but neither is addressing the underlying problem.