Windsor Police Service reporting $2.5 million deficit for first half of 2025
A second-quarter variance projection, as of May 31, 2025, showed that the police service will experience a $2,575,000 deficit by the end of 2025 – or a two per cent budget deficit.
$575,000 of that deficit was due to a reduction in grants and subsidies, while $2 million was due to salaries and benefits. Over $1-million of that $2 million was due to overtime pay alone.
Much of the overtime recorded comes from a number of protests held throughout the city that Windsor police staffed to ensure public safety, as well as a number of calls to assist with mental health situations.
An update was provided during the WPS Board Meeting, where mitigation efforts were spoken about to reroute this deficit before December, such as pulling officers from other duties to help staff these incidents and looking for provincial grants.
Board chair and ward 6 councillor Jo-Anne Gignac said there isn't a lot of funding for police entities to deal with additional responsibilities surrounding mental health.
'Tracking those costs a little more accurately in terms of what percentage of your budget goes for issues that municipal police forces were never identified as being responsible for, we have an opportunity to be able to approach our partners and say 'listen, this is getting to the point where we need sustainable, reliable funding',' she said.
She said there are consistent protests held in the city.
'As a result of those things I think becoming so publicly visible, we've experienced a number of others. It's a growing city concern, and a diverse city concern.'
Gignac said looking at comparator costs to the OPP did not go as expected due to the rising costs.
'Municipalities that have OPP policing choose the services that they're going to pay for. There's a vast difference between the City of Windsor's municipal police force and what we are doing every day in terms of response with whether that be dog teams, specialized drug teams.'
The WPS was allotted $111 million for the 2025 budget, which was 22 per cent of the municipal tax levy for the year.
The service also recorded a nearly $3.8 million deficit for 2024, a $72,000 deficit for 2023, and a surplus of $620,000 for 2023.
- Written by Meagan Delaurier/AM800 News.
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