Cash and Cops

Police budgets and statistics for various North American cities (courtesy of NOW Magazine:

Toronto

Operating budget $840 million (requested for 2008, of which 89 per cent is for salaries and benefits)

Percentage of total city budget 24

Total number of officers 5,510 sworn, 1,900 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 453 people

Area covered 630 square kilometres

Crime rate 5,020 Criminal Code offences per 100,000 people (second-lowest in the country behind Quebec City's 4,931 per 100,000)

Montreal

Operating budget $526 million

Percentage of total city budget 13

Total number of officers 4,383 sworn, 807 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 360 people

Area covered 366 square kilometres

Crime rate 6,912 per 100,000 (lower homicide rate than ours: 1.4 versus our 1.8 per 100,000; but 32 per cent higher property crime rate: 3,642 versus our 2,471 per 100,000)

Atlanta

Operating budget $132 million (U.S.) – A staggering $700 million less than our budget, despite a crime rate that's 75 per cent higher than ours.

Percentage of total city budget 22

Total number of officers 1,796 sworn, 600 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 270 people

Area covered 343 square kilometres

Crime rate 8,187 per 100,000

Chicago

Operating budget $1.19 billion (U.S.)*

Percentage of total city budget 21 – comparable to ours, but the qualifier here is that Chicago has almost three times as many cops patrolling the streets and a murder rate (468 last year) 10 times that of T.O.'s

Total number of officers 13,619 sworn, 2,635 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 216 people

Area covered 606 square kilometres

Crime rate 5,895 per 100,000

Los Angeles

Operating budget $1.19 billion (U.S.)

Percentage of total city budget 18

Total number of officers 9,621 sworn, 3,000 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 400 people

Area covered 1,290 square kilometers (twice the area patrolled by our force)

Crime rate 3,504 per 100,000 (surprise, lower than Toronto's, despite 480 murders last year. L.A.'s come a long way since Rodney King)

Houston

Operating budget $534 million (U.S.)

Percentage of total city budget 32 (explained largely by the fact that this gun-happy Texas town ranks 15th in the U.S. in murders, with 377 last year, 18 versus our 2 per 100,000)

Total number of officers 5,400 sworn, civilians (unavailable)

Officers per capita 1 for every 377 people

Area covered 1,558 square kilometres

Crime rate 7,006 per 100,000

New York City

Operating budget $2.43 billion (U.S.) – twice the budget of T.O.'s force, but NYC employs 10 times more cops, covering twice the area, and boasts half our crime rate

Percentage of total city budget 13

Total number of officers 37, 838 sworn, 18,000 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 217 people

Area covered 1,214 kilometres square

Crime rate 2,516 per 100,000