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Guest column: Police costs are soaring — and taxpayers deserve answers

The issue isn’t whether police deserve support, but whether Woodstonians are getting transparency, accountability and value for what they pay

Three years ago, my son was acquitted of every charge against him. I won’t retell that story —  Postmedia already did (lfpress.com/news/local-news/accused-over-thumbnails-inside-one-familys-digital-nightmare).

Here is what I did next: learning how policing and oversight in Ontario work, and what they cost us.

Guest column: Police costs are soaring — and taxpayers deserve answers Back to video

First, what I am not saying. I am not out to discredit our police or to defund them. I understand we pay a hub-city policing premium for highways 401 and 403, that policing carries real risk, and that recruiting is hard. Today’s mental health and opioid crises are nothing like 10 years ago, and our police are the only ones answering the phone at 3 a.m.

This is not a risk problem. It is a math problem.

I compiled 10 years of data from Woodstock Police Service annual reports, board budget documents, Stats Canada and city records. The police budget was $12.9 million in 2016. In 2026, it’s $24.3 million, up 88.6 per cent. The population grew 32 per cent; consumer inflation was up 31 per cent; my property taxes increased 34 per cent. The budget........

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