Wednesday March 26, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Over the course of a few meetings of City of Langford council there has been some community concern expressed about the number of additional RCMP officers might be included in the municipality’s 2025 budget.
The West Shore RCMP detachment that serves five west shore municipalities (Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, View Royal and Highlands) and two First Nations (Songhees First Nation, Esquimalt First Nation) made a pitch to the City of Langford to fund five new officers.
Officers cost about $225,000 per year (salary plus benefits and related expenses).
Through their budget deliberations over recent weeks, City of Langford council expressed repeated concern about containing the overall tax increase for all city expenditures in Budget 2025 within the five-year financial plan.
The final council deliberation was to fund an increase of four officers, one short of the five that RCMP Detachment Commander Todd Preston had itemized the need for.
Budget 2025 summary:
At the Council meeting on Monday, March 17, 2025, Langford Council approved the 2025 budget with a tax increase of 9.77%.
The approved budget increase includes nine firefighters, four RCMP Officers, costs transferred to the City from the Province for E-Comm (dispatch services for emergency services), City-related services, inflation, and significant infrastructure projects including phase one of the Latoria Road sidewalk and bike lane project.
The funding for E-Comm is new to the budget for several west shore municipalities this year.
Public concern:
Public concern has been articulated at a few council meetings — including by Wendy Hobbs, Frazer Johnson and Mike Wignall at the March 17 meeting — as well at an RCMP town hall last Thursday evening at the Langford Legion.
The concern has been, overall, that the city is executing a shortfall of budgeting for policing and correlating that to an expected level of safety and protection in the community. Of course, no community wants less than sufficient protection. There was a public expression of support for the RCMP detachment.
The City also expresses their support for the RCMP policing service in their community and feels they are keeping up with budget allocation to policing within current budget constraints. The municipal feels it has met a complement of officers that might be minimal but sufficient.
Cop to pop:
Like many municipalities, Langford follows the principle of ‘cop to pop’ (i.e. maintaining a ratio of police officers relative to population, including population growth).
“Given recent misconceptions about RCMP funding and public safety, the City aims to clarify the following information using publicly available sources. Langford is a safe community, the City is committed to ensuring public safety, and the City supports the West Shore RCMP,” the City stated in a news release on March 21.
The City notes that in 2024, there was a 5.9% decrease in the number of calls for service to the RCMP in Langford compared to 2023. In addition, the entire West Shore saw an overall decrease in calls for service of 4.1%. “Despite this reduction in calls, Langford’s 2025 “pop to cop” ratio is the lowest it has been in the last five years,” the City states.
The following table shows the City of Langford’s “Pop-to-Cop” numbers using the updated population statistics issued by the Province in February 2025:
| Year | Langford Population | Pop-to-Cop Ratio | Authorized Strength | Requested Pop-to-Cop Ratio |
| 2025 | 58,320 | 788:1 | 74 | 725:1 |
| 2024 | 55,525 | 793:1 | 70 | 725:1 |
| 2023 | 53,120 | 817:1 | 65 | 725:1 |
| 2022 | 49,199 | 807:1 | 61 | 750:1 |
| 2021 | 46,333 | 799:1 | 58 | 750:1 |
The City seeks to demonstrate its support of the RCMP detachment by itemizing that in 2024, Langford’s percentage of the total West Shore RCMP sworn officer positions was 59.83% while the number of calls for service in Langford was only 56.51% of all calls. “This underscores Langford’s commitment to funding the RCMP to meet the community’s needs.”
Any community will of course be concerned that public safety and protection of property is held as a priority, something that Langford Mayor and Council continue to demonstrate. They have not expressed concern about service delivery by the RCMP.
Of course, Superintendent Preston would have a realistic view of staffing needs. He felt that four, not five, new officers would be a strain on detachment operations and probably result in a reduction of hours in certain areas of police service delivery. Council nevertheless seems to feel that service will be sufficiently maintained, showing full confidence in Preston and his contingent.
“The City of Langford values it’s strong and successful working relationship with the RCMP, West Shore communities and the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations and is dedicated to maintaining strong support and funding for police services, ensuring safety and prosperity for our thriving community,” the City stated.
By the numbers:
Using updated population statistics issued by the Province in 2025, Langford’s pop-to-cop in 2025 is 788.1 compared to 923.1 in Colwood, and 971.1 in View Royal.
In Langford, the increase in officers to the change in revised population shows as 5.71% in 2025. Over the past five years the number of approved officers has steadily increased, from 58 in 201 to 74 in 2025.
The following table shows the increase in officers funded by the City of Langford over the past five years in comparison to population growth.
| Year | Langford Revised Population | Change in Population | Approved Officers | Population % Change | Officers % Change |
| 2025 | 58,320 | +2,795 | 74 | 5.03% | 5.71% |
| 2024 | 55,525 | +2,405 | 70 | 4.53% | 7.69% |
| 2023 | 53,120 | +3,921 | 65 | 7.97% | 6.56% |
| 2022 | 49,199 | +2,866 | 61 | 6.19% | 5.17% |
| 2021 | 46,333 | +2831 | 58 | 6.51% | 9.43% |
City RCMP Budget Year-over-Year
The following tables demonstrates that the City of Langford has made consistent improvements in its policing resources, with an increasing number of officers and having the best population-to-officer ratio in the last five years. The City’s Police Budget detailed below includes the addition of new officers and contractual increases resulting from the policing contract.
| Year | Police Budget | Change to Police Budget Year Over Year | Police Budget % Change Year Over Year |
| *2025 | $14,589,120 | $1,962,692 | +15.54% |
| 2024 | $12,626,428 | $1,301,428 | +11.49% |
| 2023 | $11,325,000 | $1,086,008 | +10.61% |
| 2022 | $10,238,992 | $639,492 | +6.66% |
| 2021 | $9,599,500 | $1,452,900 | +17.83% |
*Does not include E-Comm expenses
The RCMP budget detailed above is a single line item within the Financial Plans Police Services budget that specifically relates to the addition of new officers and the increases associated with officer operating costs.
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NEWS SECTIONS: LANGFORD