ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: May 9, 2002
Author/Local: R. Huston/717-3120

RTS No. 2682

CC File No. 1376

Council: May 14, 2002

TO: Vancouver City Council

FROM: Chief Constable

SUBJECT: Funding of Tuition Fees for Police Recruits

RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT, City Council approve the creation of an "employee advance program" to assist new police recruits to meet the costs of basic police training offered through the Justice Institute of BC Police Academy, and

B. THAT, the "employee advance program" include provisions acceptable to the Director of Finance, including agreed upon written terms requiring recruits to authorize the repayment of the advance through a standard payroll deduction program over a (36) thirty-six month period, and

C. THAT, City Council provide funding from contingency reserve in the amount of $475,200 subject to recovering such funds through the payroll deduction plan for new recruits.

COUNCIL POLICY

There is no applicable Council policy addressing this subject although Council has approved similar programs involving employee advances as part of a payroll deduction plan in the past. An example is the computer purchase plan.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to solicit Council's approval of an "employee advance program" to assist new police recruits in meeting the costs of basic recruit training through the Justice Institute of BC Police Academy.

BACKGROUND

On February 4, 2002, the Police Academy at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC) advised municipal police departments their budget would be reduced from $2.2 million to $1.5 million effective April 1, 2002. The Police Academy budget supports the following police training services:

· Recruit Training Program
· Advanced Training Programs

· Assessment Centre

A budget reduction of $700,000 represents 31.8% of the annual budget and would have had a significant impact on the level of service of the Police Academy if not subsidized through some other method.

The Justice Institute Police Academy has now required recruits to pay for the costs of police training whereas these costs were previously covered by the Provincial Government. The projected costs for the total number of recruits in 2002 is $475,200. These costs are anticipated to increase in accordance with the table outlined below.

Year	Rate Per Recruit	No. of Recruits	Total Cost
2002	$ 7,200	66	$475,200
2003	$ 9,500	60	$570,000
2004	$12,500	60	$750,000
2005	$14,500	60	$870,000

The Vancouver Police Department Executive is very concerned about this reduction in Academy funding and the related impact on our ability to attract and hire qualified recruits.

Our current recruits are typically 27 to 30 years old and most have already invested a substantial amount of time and money in their education to make them competitive in our selection process. In addition, they often have a solid employment history, which means that they have many options available to them. A $10,000 - $13,000 fee for training or a further reduction in salary would significantly reduce the numbers of older, mature applicants entering the process. It would also have a significant impact on women and visible minority candidates. The ability of the Department to reflect the ethnic diversity of the community it serves would be dramatically effected. This is contrary to our recruiting mandate, and will reduce our current opportunity to make the police department more reflective of the community.

The Police Department is currently having difficulties finding sufficient numbers of qualifiedrecruits to meet existing requirements. It is also concerned that with projected retirements, additional positions recently approved by Council and the fact that the Department anticipates it will lose many recruits to other departments in the future, it will have increasing attraction and retention problems in the near future.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that both Edmonton and Calgary pay the full cost of recruit training for their new recruits and both are anticipating significant hiring in both 2002 and 2003. The Department is concerned that it will lose qualified candidates, not just to other BC departments but to Alberta as well.

DISCUSSION

This matter was the topic of discussion among the BC Municipal Chief's of Police (BCMCP) at their March meeting. The Chief's at the March 12^th meeting affirmed their intentions to not absorb the cost of recruit training but to leave that challenge with the new recruits. However, the BC Municipal Chief's are all concerned that requiring new recruits to pay the substantial training costs will adversely impact on their ability to attract qualified candidates and act as a significant deterrent to women, mature recruits and other minority group members seeking to join the police force.

As a reasonable compromise, the Chief Constable of the Vancouver Police Department recommends the creation of an interest free "employee advance program" to assist recruits in meeting the new requirements to pay the full costs of police basic training at the Justice Institute of BC Police Academy.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The "employee advance program", coupled with repayment through a standard payroll deduction plan, will not result in additional costs to the City. It will, however, require the City to provide up-front money to cover the initial tuition costs with the City recouping those costs over a (3) three year repayment schedule as part of the payroll deduction plan.

Three recruit classes, totaling (66) sixty-six members, are expected during the balance of 2002. The first of these classes commences May 27, 2002 with the other classes commencing in September and November of this year.

The anticipated costs for the May class (covering (14) fourteen members @ $7,200) is $100,800 with an additional cost for 2002 projected at $374,400. The total cost in 2002 will be $475,200.

CONCLUSION

The ability to recruit and train new members is critical to our future. We currently have oneof the best recruit training models in the country. The success of the recruit training program is due in part to the quality of recruit that we hire. Budget reductions by the Provincial Government have placed this program in jeopardy.

It is incumbent upon our Department to ensure that we provide our recruits with the best training available while at the same time maintain our recruiting standards to ensure that we continue to hire the best possible recruit. Assisting recruits through an employee advance program will assist in ensuring that the VPD is able to select from the widest possible pool of potential applicants.

We realize the City of Vancouver is also faced with stringent budget limitations. While we remain convinced that charging our recruit officers for their basic training will have a negative impact on our ability to attract sufficient numbers of qualified recruits, particularly from our community-focused target groups, we understand that the COV is likely unable to fully fund our recruit training needs.

An "employee advance program" will assist our recruit applicants and our recruiters as we continue to meet the challenge of finding and hiring suitable recruit officers.

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver