Police board approves $20M budget increase with plans to expand force
Posted Nov 13, 2025 07:36:15 AM.
Last Updated Nov 13, 2025 10:04:00 AM.
The Waterloo Regional Police Services (WRPS) Board approved a budget of $272 million, a roughly $20 million increase from the year prior, with plans to expand the number of uniformed officers on the force.
This increase could have a 6.75 per cent impact on the regional police portion of the property tax bill, or just over $50 per month for an average-sized home next year.
These numbers are still up for debate, as they’re set to be presented and potentially tweaked following a Region of Waterloo council meeting on Nov. 26.
“This is a multi-month, all-consuming task,” said WRPS Chief of Police Mark Crowell. “We’re really striving to present the board and the public a sustainable path to adequate and effective police service delivery in Waterloo Region.”
In order to meet a rising call volume and community needs, the service plans to add 20 front-line officers in 2026, as well as a six-officer road safety team and two court officers.
The police board also approved plans to add 73 officers to the force by 2030, a plan formulated by Operational Research in Health (ORH), a U.K.-based consulting firm that the service has hired to aid in expansion.
ORH recommended that WRPS “right-size” their patrol division to respond to predicted increases in demand. They predict that calls for service where an officer is dispatched could increase by nearly 3 per cent each year, meaning they could face 140,000 calls by 2030.
In researching the previous five years at WRPS, ORH found that patrol officers are busier now than ever before, leading to a deterioration in the average response times to calls where life is not immediately threatened.
Over the next two years, ORH will support the growth of various divisions of WRPS, including investigations and the communications centre.
The police portion makes up about a third of the total property taxes people pay for regional services.
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