Data quality, concepts and methodology: Methodology

View the most recent version.

Survey definitions and coverage

This report is based upon data collected through the Police Administration Survey conducted by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. This survey collects data on police personnel and expenditures from each municipal, provincial and federal (Royal Canadian Mounted Police [RCMP]) police service in Canada. With the exception of “independent” First Nations police services, all First Nations police personnel and expenditures falling under the jurisdiction of the RCMP are reported under RCMP federal policing. The RCMP provides local police service to over 630 communities in 11 provinces/territories.

The following federal policing and security agencies are excluded from the survey: the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, railway and military police. Federal and provincial government departments deploying personnel to enforce specific statutes in the areas of income tax, customs and excise, immigration, fisheries and wildlife are also excluded. As well, private security guards and private investigators are not included in this survey.

Data presented in this report represent police personnel as of May 15 2009, final expenditures for the year 2008 (or 2008/2009 for those services operating on a fiscal year). Most municipal police services operate on a calendar year while the provincial services and the RCMP operate on a fiscal year. Policing expenditures will be referred to as calendar year (i.e., 2008) throughout this report.

Personnel counts are based on permanent, full-time equivalents; part-time employees are converted to full-time equivalents (e.g., 4 employees working 10 hours per week would equal 1 full-time employee working a 40-hour week). Police officers include the actual number of sworn police officers available for active duty as of May 15, 2009. Other employees include all other non-police personnel (civilians and special constables) (e.g., clerical, dispatch, management, cadets, special constables, security officers, school crossing guards, by-law enforcement officers). Temporary police officers, auxiliary police and other volunteer personnel are not included in this report.

Counts for temporary officers are not included in any of the police officer counts, as only permanent, full-time officers (and full-time equivalents) are included. Temporary police officers are hired to fill in, as needed, for permanent police officers. The province of Quebec employs more temporary police officers than any other jurisdiction. Of the 1,067 temporary officers reported in 2009, 955 or 90% were employed in Quebec.

Police expenditures are actual operating expenditures and include: salaries and wages, benefits, and other operating expenses such as accommodation costs, fuel, maintenance, etc. Capital expenditures, funding from external sources, revenues and recoveries are not included.

Population figures used in this report are provided by the Demography Division of Statistics Canada and represent postcensal or intercensal estimates. Population data are regularly updated and, as such, rates published in this report may differ slightly from rates published in earlier reports. Text and headings indicate the population figures used.

Data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey are also included in this report to provide appropriate caseload context for the police in terms of the volume of criminal incidents coming to their attention. The UCR Survey collects crime and traffic offences reported by all police services in Canada, dating back to 1962.

Major survey revisions

1986 revision

The Police Administration Survey was revised in 1986 to collect police department expenditures (beginning in 1985) as well as more detailed information on police personnel and functions. As both the old and revised surveys were run simultaneously in 1986, it was possible to examine the effects of the revised survey. An analysis of the data revealed that there were some minor differences in the distribution of police personnel between the two surveys. In order to correct for these methodological differences, the data presented in Table 1 prior to 1986 have been adjusted at the national level.

1996 revision

In 1996, changes were made to the effective date for collecting personnel strength, moving from September 30 to June 15. School crossing guards were added to the survey in 1996 as their numbers warranted a separate category. Prior to 1996, they were captured under the "other" category. Adjustments were made to civilian personnel to account for this change, back to 1986.

Also, expenses associated with the purchasing and leasing of vehicles were now to be included only if they were part of the operational budget of the police service. Prior to 1995, all expenses related to the purchase and lease of vehicles were included, regardless of the type of budget. Benefits were expanded to include those paid by other government sources. The removal of expenses due to the capital purchases of vehicles and the addition of expenses due to the inclusion of benefits paid by other government sources were examined in detail. It was estimated that these revisions accounted for an overall change of less than 1% in reported expenses.

2006 revision

In 2006, changes were made to the effective date for collecting personnel strength, moving from June 15 to May 15. This date change should not have any impact on the continuity of 2006 data with previous years.

Municipal police service data tables

Municipal police services employ 65% of all police officers in Canada and provide policing services to over 25 million Canadians (75% of the Canadian population). Summary information on Canada’s municipal police services is presented in this report. Municipal policing includes all police services that are paid for by the municipalities including contract policing provided to municipalities by provincial police services and the RCMP. It also includes self-administered First Nations police services. It should be noted that offences investigated by federal RCMP personnel within a municipal policing jurisdiction are included in the crime statistics for that municipal police service; however, personnel and expenditures associated with the federal RCMP are not included.

Within each province, municipal police services are grouped into one of five population ranges and the municipalities within each group are listed alphabetically. Within these groupings, municipalities that are policed by the RCMP or OPP under municipal contracts are separated by a blank line from the other municipal police services.

Table 9 and table 10 include only personnel and operating expenditures from municipal police services that existed on May 15, 2009. Municipal police services that ceased to exist and/or were amalgamated by other new police services on or before May 15, 2009 are not included. Crime data and expenditure data for 2009 are not yet available, therefore data presented in table 10 of the report are for the year 2008.

Important notes

Population

Municipal populations are derived from postcensal estimates for July 1 (based on the 2006 Census) as provided by Demography Division, Statistics Canada. The population estimates are based on usual place of residence. Population data are updated regularly and figures published in this report may differ slightly from figures published in earlier reports.

Some Aboriginal police services police larger populations comprising both band and non-band members. Hence the actual population policed by some forces may be higher than indicated in this report. Comparisons should be made with caution.

Municipalities are grouped according to the following population ranges:

1. 100,000 and over
2. 50,000 to 99,999
3. 15,000 to 49,999
4. 5,000 to 14,999
5. Less than 5,000

Population density

In order to provide context for the relative urban or rural composition of a municipality, a population density figure is provided. Population density refers to the number of persons per square kilometre. The calculation for population density is total population divided by land area.

Land area is the area in square kilometres of the land-based portions of the census geographic area, in this case the census subdivision (municipality). The land area measurements for the census subdivision reflect the boundaries in effect on January 1, 2006 (the geographic reference date for the 2006 Census of Canada). Since the population density is a summary calculation of total municipal population divided by total municipal land area, it will not reflect the distribution of urban and rural segments within a municipality. However, it can be descriptive of the general urban or rural structure; for example, a highly centralized city such as Vancouver, British Columbia. has a population density of 5,381 persons/km² whereas an expansive city such as Greater Sudbury, Ontario. has a population density of 51 persons/km².

Police officers

Actual strength

Counts represent the “actual” number (full-time equivalents) of permanent sworn police officers of all ranks as of May 15, 2009 data. This number also includes officers who are deployed to contract positions (e.g. airport policing, U.N. missions) and who are not available for general policing duties in their community. Police officers on long-term leave (e.g. secondment-out, disability, education leave) who are not being paid by the police service’s annual budget are excluded.

Authorized strength

“Authorized police officer strength” represents the number of fully-sworn police officers the police department was allowed to employ during calendar or fiscal year.

Population per police officer

Counts represent the population of the area serviced by the police service divided by the number of police officers. For some services, particularly those patrolling cottage or tourist areas, the population policed can fluctuate dramatically throughout the year, usually peaking during the summer months. Correspondingly, the number of police officers assigned to these services may also fluctuate to accommodate these peak periods. Because the personnel data are collected for a specific point in time (May 15, 2009) and the population estimates are based on usual place of residence only, these aspects are not captured.

Police officers per 100,000 population

Figures represent the total number of police officers per 100,000 population. This is simply an alternative way of presenting the population per police officer.

Other personnel

Counts include civilian and other personnel (e.g., clerical, dispatch, management, cadets, special constables, security officers, school crossing guards, by-law enforcement officers) on the police department’s payroll as of May 15, 2009. There are no "other personnel" included in the counts for the RCMP municipal policing contracts. The municipality may hire other personnel, but they are not included in this report.

Total operating expenditures

Figures include salaries, wages, benefits, and other operating expenses that are paid from the police service budget, as well as benefits paid from other government sources. They have been rounded to the nearest thousand. Revenues, recoveries, and those costs that fall under a police service’s capital expenditures are excluded.

Under the RCMP billing agreement, most municipalities with a population under 15,000 are billed 70% of total expenditures, and those with a population of 15,000 and over are billed 90% (in most cases) of total costs. The costing formula takes into consideration the costs of providing federal and other RCMP policing duties while also performing municipal policing duties. First Nations Policing Program (FNPP) agreements are cost-shared 52% by the Government of Canada and 48% by the relevant province or territory.

As operational situations may vary considerably between police services, so will the operational costs that result. For example, some costs (accommodation, by-law enforcement, court security) and some services (computing, personnel, and financial services) may be included within the police service’s operational budget for certain municipalities, but in other municipalities they may be paid for by other departments or through the police service’s capital budget (which is excluded). In some police services, there may be police officers who are funded by external agencies (e.g. an airport authority or a community organisation). While these officers are included in this report, the expenditure of these funds is not. Conversely, some police forces provide cost-recovery services (e.g. 911 call-takers and dispatchers). Revenues and recoveries from such services are excluded from this report. Therefore comparisons should be made with caution.

Per capita cost

Figures represent expenditures divided by the population of the area serviced by the police service (rounded to the nearest dollar). For the reasons described above, comparisons should be made with caution.

Major expenditure categories

This section examines five major expenditure categories which may, or may not, be part of the police service’s operational budget. The purpose of this section is to highlight differences in costs between forces due to different accounting policies and practices.

Crime Severity Index

The police-reported Crime Severity Index (CSI) measures changes in the severity of crime from year to year. Each type of offence is assigned a weight derived from actual sentences handed down by courts.

Percentage change in Crime Severity Index

This figure represents the year-over-year percent change in the Crime Severity Index.

Weighted clearance rate

When a police investigation leads to the identification of a suspect against whom a charge could be laid, then that incident can be cleared. Criminal incidents can either be “cleared by charge” or “cleared otherwise”. When an information is laid against the suspect (i.e., the person is formally charged), then from a statistical point of view the related actual incident can be cleared by charge. In cases where the police do not lay an information, even though they have identified a suspect and have enough evidence to support the laying of such, the incident is cleared otherwise. Examples include instances where extrajudicial sanctions or alternative measures are recommended by the police, where police issue a warning or caution, where the complainant declines to proceed with charges or cases where the alleged offender dies before he or she can be formally charged.

The weighted clearance rate is based on the same principle used to create the Crime Index, whereby more serious offences are assigned a higher weight than less serious offences. Applying this concept to clearance rates means that, for example, the clearance of a homicide, robbery or break and enter receives a higher weight than the clearance of less serious offences such as minor theft, mischief and disturbing the peace.

Since the process of solving crime is often time-consuming, a criminal incident may be solved months or even years after it was reported to police and recorded by the UCR Survey. Therefore, it is possible for the number of incidents cleared in a year to be greater than the total number of "actual" incidents that year, and thus for the weighted clearance rate to exceed 100%.

Note

For more information regarding the UCR Survey and crime statistics, please refer to Canadian Crime Statistics (Catalogue no. 85-205-X).