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Left wing Edmonton council votes to reduce police budget in 2022 despite several types of crime increasing - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-city-council-police-budget-1.6287629

  • Violent Crime: While the overall rate is down, the number of violent incidents has increased, with a slight rise in 2024 compared to 2023.

  • Violent Crime Incidents: In 2024, there were more violent crime incidents than in 2019, which has caused public concern, especially regarding safety in the downtown core and on public transit.

  • Specific Violent Crimes: Incidents involving knives have increased, while incidents involving firearms have decreased. Domestic violence incidents have decreased by 3.1%.

  • Crime Severity: The overall crime severity in Edmonton decreased by 3.5% in 2024.

  • Property Crime: There was a 14.6% decrease in property crime from 2022 to 2023.

  • Youth Crime: There was a 13% increase in youth crime from 2022 to 2023.
 
Whatup said:
Left wing Edmonton council votes to reduce police budget in 2022 despite several types of crime increasing - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-city-council-police-budget-1.6287629

  • Violent Crime: While the overall rate is down, the number of violent incidents has increased, with a slight rise in 2024 compared to 2023.

  • Violent Crime Incidents: In 2024, there were more violent crime incidents than in 2019, which has caused public concern, especially regarding safety in the downtown core and on public transit.

  • Specific Violent Crimes: Incidents involving knives have increased, while incidents involving firearms have decreased. Domestic violence incidents have decreased by 3.1%.

  • Crime Severity: The overall crime severity in Edmonton decreased by 3.5% in 2024.

  • Property Crime: There was a 14.6% decrease in property crime from 2022 to 2023.

  • Youth Crime: There was a 13% increase in youth crime from 2022 to 2023.
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I think you missed the downtown crime thread.
 
Oilguy said:
I think you missed the downtown crime thread.
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I was just adding to some points being made on this thread. Crisp made a good point - Constance Chlore then said "The reason I'm pushing on this is because for the last five years all across North America, people have breathlessly repeated the claim that crime or disorder has gone up because we defunded the police, a thing that literally did not happen. So forgive me for being skeptical!" So I provided some stats to support Crisp's point that left wing politicians have defunded the police and there could be argument made that it is linked to higher crime rates. It's interesting that "left wing" cities in N. America tend to have more issues with drugs, crime and general societal chaos in many areas of the city.
 
Whatup said:
I was just adding to some points being made on this thread. Crisp made a good point - Constance Chlore then said "The reason I'm pushing on this is because for the last five years all across North America, people have breathlessly repeated the claim that crime or disorder has gone up because we defunded the police, a thing that literally did not happen. So forgive me for being skeptical!" So I provided some stats to support Crisp's point that left wing politicians have defunded the police and there could be argument made that it is linked to higher crime rates. It's interesting that "left wing" cities in N. America tend to have more issues with drugs, crime and general societal chaos in many areas of the city.
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"During 2022 budget deliberations Wednesday, council opted to reallocate $10.9 million of the expected $11.9-million increase to address houselessness and community safety initiatives in an effort to reduce calls for service that police respond to. The police service will still see a $1-million increase from the 2021 allocation, to account for the cost of staff time on the new National Truth and Reconciliation Day, bringing their annual budget to $384.8 million. This total $11.9-million increase to the city’s overall budget equates to 0.7 per cent of the proposed 1.8 per cent property tax increase."
edmontonjournal.com

Edmonton Police Service to receive $10.9 million less than expected in 2022, funding to be redirected to community safety initiatives

Edmonton Police Service Chief Dale McFee told council last week that the service has already taken many hits through $7.3 million in additional annual ongoing costs.
edmontonjournal.com edmontonjournal.com

And then a year later:
globalnews.ca

Edmonton city council votes to increase police funding - Edmonton | Globalnews.ca

Funding for the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) was the first item on the agenda at a city council meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
www.theprogressreport.ca

Funding the police: How the Edmonton police budget increased by $34.5 million in less than a year

The Edmonton police budget has increased by nearly 9% in the last year and it’s going to keep going up
www.theprogressreport.ca www.theprogressreport.ca
 
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Yeah we never actually cut the police budget, we just lowered the increase by a significant amount that one year and went back to funding increases.

Which had no visual effect on downtown until McFee left because he was the biggest roadblock to any sort of cooperation and relationship with council.
 
IMG_20250628_144355097_HDR.jpg
 
Constance Chlore then said "The reason I'm pushing on this is because for the last five years all across North America, people have breathlessly repeated the claim that crime or disorder has gone up because we defunded the police, a thing that literally did not happen." However, it can be argued that defunding the police was linked to an uptick in crime - there are various reasons for crime increasing but it cannot be denied that defunding the police could be one of the factors. The subsequent increases to the police budget are good to see but doesn't change the fact that a left leaning city council slashed the police budget when several indicators of crime were on the upswing. I'm not sure why this is so controversial - after the George Floyd incident in the USA many city governments chose to jump on the progressive soupe de jour which was "defund the police" and the Edmonton city council did this as well. They apparently realized their mistake and did a quick correction - which was the pragmatic thing to do.
 
Whatup said:
Constance Chlore then said "The reason I'm pushing on this is because for the last five years all across North America, people have breathlessly repeated the claim that crime or disorder has gone up because we defunded the police, a thing that literally did not happen." However, it can be argued that defunding the police was linked to an uptick in crime - there are various reasons for crime increasing but it cannot be denied that defunding the police could be one of the factors. The subsequent increases to the police budget are good to see but doesn't change the fact that a left leaning city council slashed the police budget when several indicators of crime were on the upswing. I'm not sure why this is so controversial - after the George Floyd incident in the USA many city governments chose to jump on the progressive soupe de jour which was "defund the police" and the Edmonton city council did this as well. They apparently realized their mistake and did a quick correction - which was the pragmatic thing to do.
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Yes yes we get it, you are preaching to the choir that social disorder drives away development dollars.

So how bout them buildings, I like tall ones with lots of podium level commerical spaces. I really like when the podium reflects the area's historical architecture and style, eg: 104 Street
 
Whatup said:
Constance Chlore then said "The reason I'm pushing on this is because for the last five years all across North America, people have breathlessly repeated the claim that crime or disorder has gone up because we defunded the police, a thing that literally did not happen." However, it can be argued that defunding the police was linked to an uptick in crime - there are various reasons for crime increasing but it cannot be denied that defunding the police could be one of the factors. The subsequent increases to the police budget are good to see but doesn't change the fact that a left leaning city council slashed the police budget when several indicators of crime were on the upswing. I'm not sure why this is so controversial - after the George Floyd incident in the USA many city governments chose to jump on the progressive soupe de jour which was "defund the police" and the Edmonton city council did this as well. They apparently realized their mistake and did a quick correction - which was the pragmatic thing to do.
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Other people have already pointed out the Edmonton did not, in fact, defund the police. (A smaller increase in funding is not a decrease.) If you want to discuss this further, you can do it over at the Downtown Crime thread, but I'm not going to engage further here.
 
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