In the midst of a global movement to combat racism and police brutality and defund police forces across so-called “North America”, the City of Victoria is proposing a 1.5% increase to the Victoria Police Department’s operating budget for 2021, which amounts to $60.7 million or 23% of their $255.9 million budget.
When other city services and programs such as planning and public works are being reduced due to significant decreases in city revenues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s proposed 2021 budget continues the concerning trend of annual increases to the VicPD budget. But there is something we can do about it! The City of Victoria is currently soliciting feedback on the 2021 proposed budget and there are three ways you can let them know that an increase to the VicPD budget is unacceptable.
ACTION 1:
Use the letter template (http://ow.ly/hmid50D1Kf6) to craft your own letter to the city outlining why you would like to see the police budget frozen or decreased.
**Be sure to address it to engage@victoria.ca and send it by midnight on Sunday January 10, 2021.**
ACTION 2:
Complete the budget survey on engage.victoria.ca by midnight on Sunday January 10, 2021. You must register by providing your email, birth year and postal code. You can use the points in the letter template (http://ow.ly/hmid50D1Kf6) to complete Question 10.
You do not need to complete the rest of the survey if you don’t want to; however the folks over at Poverty Kills have done a great analysis of the budget (http://ow.ly/S3gI50D1KpO), if you want to provide more in-depth input.
Note that the results of the survey will be quantified and reported out to the public; therefore, the more responses to the survey that oppose increases to the police budget, the better.
ACTION 3:
Participate in the Virtual Budget Town Hall on Wednesday January 13 at 6:30pm by submitting a written question/comment or 3-minute video to engage.victoria.ca, or registering to speak live via phone by emailing engage@victoria.ca by January 12 at 2pm.
You can also tweet your questions/comments using the hashtag #victownhall.
