Victoria police Chief Del Manak announced the reassigning of six officer positions to frontline duties due to a failure in funding.

These positions are as follows:

•  Three School Liaison Constables
• One Analysis and Intelligence Constable
• One Reserve Program Constable
• One Community Services Division Beat Constable

This redeployment will result in the total eliminations of the School Liaison Officer role. It will also reduce the sworn officer Analysis and Intelligence capacity by half and restructure the Reserve Constable Program.

Four of the officers will be moved to the Patrol Division, while two will be moved to the Alternate Response Unit (ARU). 

The ARU provides immediate response by taking lower priority calls for service over the phone, reducing the need to physically dispatch an officer to these calls while improving call response times for citizens. 

“My preference is to not reallocate any positions and to continue providing the full range of policing services that our citizens expect,” Chief Manak said. 

“However, the demands placed on our frontline officers require us to take action now. Citizens expect that when they call 911, an officer will arrive to help them within a short period of time. Without this change, we cannot maintain that basic level of service.”

Overall, we are experiencing increases in each of 4 resource pressure areas:
Calls for Service
Investigative Procedures
Response Capacity
Organizational/Government Policy Decisions

The result is that we cannot maintain front-line policing service & these roles. #yyj

— Victoria Police (@vicpdcanada) April 25, 2018

Despite the increased need for officers, the 2018 budget will not allow it. All of the affected officers have been notified of the changes.

“I know how valuable our School Resource Officers are,” Chief Manak said. 

“As a parent and as police chief, I don’t need to be convinced of the important role they play in our schools.  Even with that knowledge, I am transferring them to frontline policing to ensure we maintain the call response that our citizens expect in a sustainable way.”

The transitions are anticipated to take place by the end of June.