Police Funding and Crime Rates in 20 of Canada's Largest Municipalities: A Longitudinal Study

Although the literature evaluating various police practices and reforms continues to broaden, little research has examined police funding in Canada. To describe the current landscape of Canada's police funding, we collect and publish data on municipal police service expenditures from 2010 to 2021 in 20 of the most populous urban municipalities in Canada. Our analysis describes how police funding changes over time and varies between regions, and it examines its correlation with crime rates. Spending on police services is extracted from municipal budgets, and population and crime severity index data are collected from Statistics Canada databases. In 2019, police services were the top operating expenditure in a majority of the municipalities. Real per capita spending on police services increased in 16 of 20 municipalities from 2010 to 2020. Marked differences are seen in spending between municipalities: in 2019, in 2020 dollars, Vancouver spent $495.84 per capita, whereas Quebec City spent $217.05 per capita. No consistent associations were found between police funding and crime rates across municipalities, and overall, net increases in spending per capita are not associated with greater net decreases in crime rates. These findings describe the wide local variation in police funding trends and point to the complexity of interactions between crime rates and police funding.