Police Funding and Crime Rates in 20 of Canada's Largest Municipalities: A Longitudinal Study.

This article provides a longitudinal analysis of municipal police funding in Canada from 2010 to 2021 across 20 of the country's most populous urban municipalities. It finds that police services represent a significant portion of municipal operating budgets—averaging 15 percent in 2019—and that real per capita spending on policing increased in 16 of 20 municipalities during the study period, with notable variation between cities (e.g., Vancouver spent $495.84 per capita versus Quebec City's $217.05 in 2019, adjusted to 2020 dollars). The study also examines correlations between police funding and the Crime Severity Index (CSI), a measure accounting for both volume and severity of police-reported crimes, finding no consistent or strong association between increased police spending and reductions in crime rates across municipalities. These findings highlight substantial local variation in police funding and underscore the complexity of the relationship between police budgets and crime, while emphasizing challenges related to data availability and the need for further research to inform evidence-based public resource allocation in Canadian policing.