Thunder Bay police service slightly over budget, Chief Levesque says

Thunder Bay's police chief says the service is already slightly over budget for 2016, and the reason is unexpected overtime costs.

J.P. Levesque told CBC News the first quarter of the year has been exceptionally busy with three homicides, three significant stand-offs, and several other serious crimes all of which required a large amount of personnel and resources.

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The investigation of a double homicide in late December also continued well into January, he noted.

"We had an individual under surveillance for a couple of weeks and we had to wait for forensic science to come back to give us the grounds to arrest the individual," Levesque saidat Tuesday's police services board meeting.

"It's public safety and it can be expensive and you have to spend the money to do it," he added.

At this point, Levesque said projections suggest the police service will be about $300,000 over budget for the year, which is a variance of just under one per cent.

"It's unfortunate to see that kind of projection in the first quarter. I hadn't seen that before, but there are reasons for it," said Levesque.