Statistics Canada Article on Police Personnel and Expenditures, 2013

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat published an article last week on Police Personnel and Expenditures, 2013:

"Using data from the Police Administration Survey (see the “Survey descriptions” section for details), this Juristat article will focus on the most recent findings regarding the rate of police strength and police expenditures. The Police Administration Survey captures police-reported data on the number of police officers in Canada by rank and sex, as well as civilian employees, based on a snapshot date (which is May 15, 2013 for the most recent data). Data on hiring, departures, and eligibility to retire in this report are based on either the 2012 calendar year or the 2012/2013 fiscal year, depending on the police service."

"Information from this survey is provided for Canada, the provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas (CMAs). In addition, this article provides information on workplace mobility within police services, including the hiring of and departures by police, and eligibility to retire. Finally, it summarizes data on the characteristics of police officers, including gender, age group, and Aboriginal and visible minority status. To provide a more complete picture of the state of policing in Canada, the following contextual information are included: policing responsibilities and strategies within the economics of policing discussions; international data on police personnel and gender from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); and wage information from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey (LFS)."

Among the highlights:

• there were 69,272 police officers in Canada, 233 fewer officers than in 2012, representing a rate of police strength of 197 police officers per 100,000 population. The 1.5% decrease in the rate of police strength reported in 2013 was the third consecutive annual decrease.
• Police services employed almost 27,900 civilians on the 2013 snapshot day. The ratio of officers to civilians has been slowly declining over the long term. A decade ago, there were 2.8 officers employed for every civilian, compared to 2.5 in 2013.
• For a second year in a row, Manitoba was the province with the highest rate of police strength, at 213 police officers per 100,000 population. Once again, Prince Edward Island reported the lowest rate of police strength, with 160 officers per 100,000 population.
• Among the census metropolitan areas, the highest rates of police strength in 2013 were reported in Thunder Bay (189) and Winnipeg (189). The lowest was reported in Moncton (111).
• The increased presence of women in policing continued in 2013. The number of female officers increased (+1.2%), while the number of male officers declined (-0.7%). Females now account for 20% of all police officers, compared to 16% a decade ago.
• Of new police officers hired by police services during the fiscal or calendar year of 2012, over two-thirds (69%) were recruit graduates, with the remainder being experienced police officers.
• In the fiscal or calendar year of 2012, 11% of police officers were eligible for retirement, yet only 2% of police officers actually retired. Retirements were the most common reason officers left a police service that year (69%).
• Expenditures on policing totalled $13.5 billion in the fiscal or calendar year of 2012. Controlling for inflation, this marks an increase of 2.8% from the previous year. With the exception of 2011, constant dollar spending on policing has been increasing since the late 1990s.