Police chief briefs city councillors but budget questions off-limits

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London’s police chief called for patience from the public and was asked by one city councillor what police will do to make people feel safer downtown and in Old East Village when he spoke Tuesday at city hall.

Chief Thai Truong gave a presentation to city councillors at a meeting of council’s strategic priorities and policy committee. He discussed the same police statistics from the first seven months of 2024 that he presented last month to the police board.

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As councillors posed questions about complaints they’ve received, Truong acknowledged concerns in the community but reiterated his plans to overhaul force will take several years to implement.

“Although there is so much more work to do, we’re moving in the right direction,” Truong told reporters after his presentation. “So, although I’m asking the community to be patient, I understand they want change now. We’re working as hard as we can.”

Councillors raised a number of neighbourhood issues with Truong such as foot patrols, judicial backlogs, vehicle noise blitzes and especially open drug use and police visibility.

“Certainly in downtown and Old East Village, (people) don’t feel safe,” Coun. Jerry Pribil said. “I hope there is going to be a plan very soon . . . let’s address this issue yesterday.”

Truong said police are looking to improve crime and nuisance reporting in order to generate better data to guide the deployment of officers, but on drug use and judicial police are limited in the steps they can take.

The force could explore pairing nurses with police officers to address mental health calls, based on an initiative in Windsor, and consult other agencies on pathways for addiction recovery, he said.

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But there were no questions from politicians about the force’s four-year $672-million budget request that was granted by city council in February.

Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis declared questions on the budget would be out of order, and better suited for formal budget talks next month.

Also absent from discussion on the budget front was the $104,000 paid by the London police board to a public relations firm to help promote the budget request, first reported by The London Free Press.

The statistics presented by Truong showed that between January and July of this year, call response times have improved in all three priority categories from life and death to non-urgent, London’s crime severity index has dropped below the national average, and fatal collisions and shootings also have declined from last year.

Officers hired this year are entering the final stages of their training and placement into the ranks, Truong said.

Combined with improved administration and dispatch through digital evidence storage, increased civilian manpower, and online crime reporting, Truong hopes to have the “modernization” of London police complete by the end of 2025.

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“By the end of two years, we’ll have officers in place that are providing service to the community at a much greater level than what the community is used to seeing,” he said. “We expect the call queue to be significantly reduced to basically zero, or when officers start their shift, it will be a handful of calls.”

As for the improvements in the interim, Truong said he attributes it to a boost in morale among employees, but also a change in leadership direction and a shift to more data and community-driven responses.

Overall, politicians struck a thankful, understanding tone with police, acknowledging progress.

“(Truong) talked about morale being much better, and that’s because council has made a decision to put resources behind this,” Mayor Josh Morgan said. “When you put resources into something, you can actually start to plan for the future, start to make the adjustments.”

Morgan’s budget update for 2025 will be tabled on Oct. 28, and budget talks among politicians will be held through November.

Property owners face a 8.7 per cent tax hike next year after an identical hike this year, more than half of the latter being dedicated to police and bylaw enforcement.

jmoulton@postmedia.com

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