Regional police unveil new spending stats for protest, demonstration deployments
Posted Jun 10, 2024 07:13:11 AM.
Last Updated Jun 10, 2024 10:28:56 AM.
A new report coming to the regional police board shows an estimated $501,000 has been spent so far this year on large-scale deployments.
The Public Safety Team, comprised of 60 members of the Waterloo Regional Police Service, is sent out to events such as public demonstrations, large rallies that are usually social justice-based, large sporting events and searches for missing people or article searches.
The same team was deployed twice on St. Patrick’s Day in March during the unsanctioned street gathering on Marshall Street at Regina Street while receiving assistance from the Ontario Provincial Police.
The report said the Public Safety Team is seeing a five-year increase in the number of deployments locally due to recent geopolitical events.
This year, the team has been deployed 14 times, compared to 27 times last year and 15 times in 2022. Five years ago in 2019, the team was deployed three times, followed by seven in 2020 and eight in 2021.
The report will come to the regional police board on Wednesday.
