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Police cost per resident

Area: Victoria and Esquimalt police area Calendar year 2024

$632 per resident a year

In a year Rising+5.7% vs 2023

No target expected. This is a context measure. A cost that follows the police budget set each year. A budget is a decision, not a target, and the Province’s Public Safety service plan sets none for it. B.C. municipal police $521. Targets and comparisons

Up 5.7% in a year.

Source: B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. We read it on Nov 12, 2026.

Check this numberOpen the report at page 11 (agency site)

Over time

Police cost per resident, municipal police departments in B.C.

2024 Per resident a year, by year

  • Victoria and Esquimalt $632
  • B.C. municipal police departments (all 11) $521
  • Saanich $403
  • Oak Bay $311
Line chart of 4 lines, 2 periods from 2023 to 2024. Victoria and Esquimalt: starts at $598 per resident a year (2023), ends at $632 per resident a year (2024); highest $632 per resident a year (2024), lowest $598 per resident a year (2023). B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): starts at $490 per resident a year (2023), ends at $521 per resident a year (2024); highest $521 per resident a year (2024), lowest $490 per resident a year (2023). Saanich: starts at $350 per resident a year (2023), ends at $403 per resident a year (2024); highest $403 per resident a year (2024), lowest $350 per resident a year (2023). Oak Bay: starts at $335 per resident a year (2023), ends at $311 per resident a year (2024); highest $335 per resident a year (2023), lowest $311 per resident a year (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024. Every value is in the table.$0$250$500$75020242023Provincial election, Oct 19, 20242023: Victoria and Esquimalt: $598 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $490 per resident a year; Saanich: $350 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $335 per resident a year2024: Victoria and Esquimalt: $632 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $521 per resident a year; Saanich: $403 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $311 per resident a year
Line chart of 4 lines, 2 periods from 2023 to 2024. Victoria and Esquimalt: starts at $598 per resident a year (2023), ends at $632 per resident a year (2024); highest $632 per resident a year (2024), lowest $598 per resident a year (2023). B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): starts at $490 per resident a year (2023), ends at $521 per resident a year (2024); highest $521 per resident a year (2024), lowest $490 per resident a year (2023). Saanich: starts at $350 per resident a year (2023), ends at $403 per resident a year (2024); highest $403 per resident a year (2024), lowest $350 per resident a year (2023). Oak Bay: starts at $335 per resident a year (2023), ends at $311 per resident a year (2024); highest $335 per resident a year (2023), lowest $311 per resident a year (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024. Every value is in the table.$0$250$500$75020242023Provincial election, Oct 19, 20242023: Victoria and Esquimalt: $598 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $490 per resident a year; Saanich: $350 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $335 per resident a year2024: Victoria and Esquimalt: $632 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $521 per resident a year; Saanich: $403 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $311 per resident a year
Line chart of 4 lines, 2 periods from 2023 to 2024. Victoria and Esquimalt: starts at $598 per resident a year (2023), ends at $632 per resident a year (2024); highest $632 per resident a year (2024), lowest $598 per resident a year (2023). B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): starts at $490 per resident a year (2023), ends at $521 per resident a year (2024); highest $521 per resident a year (2024), lowest $490 per resident a year (2023). Saanich: starts at $350 per resident a year (2023), ends at $403 per resident a year (2024); highest $403 per resident a year (2024), lowest $350 per resident a year (2023). Oak Bay: starts at $335 per resident a year (2023), ends at $311 per resident a year (2024); highest $335 per resident a year (2023), lowest $311 per resident a year (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024. Every value is in the table.$0$250$500$75020242023Provincial election, Oct 19, 2024Victoria andEsquimalt $632B.C. municipalpolicedepartments(all 11) $521Saanich $403Oak Bay $3112023: Victoria and Esquimalt: $598 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $490 per resident a year; Saanich: $350 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $335 per resident a year2024: Victoria and Esquimalt: $632 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $521 per resident a year; Saanich: $403 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $311 per resident a year
Line chart of 4 lines, 2 periods from 2023 to 2024. Victoria and Esquimalt: starts at $598 per resident a year (2023), ends at $632 per resident a year (2024); highest $632 per resident a year (2024), lowest $598 per resident a year (2023). B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): starts at $490 per resident a year (2023), ends at $521 per resident a year (2024); highest $521 per resident a year (2024), lowest $490 per resident a year (2023). Saanich: starts at $350 per resident a year (2023), ends at $403 per resident a year (2024); highest $403 per resident a year (2024), lowest $350 per resident a year (2023). Oak Bay: starts at $335 per resident a year (2023), ends at $311 per resident a year (2024); highest $335 per resident a year (2023), lowest $311 per resident a year (2024). Short ticks on the top edge mark general election days: Provincial election: Oct 19, 2024. Every value is in the table.$0$250$500$75020242023Provincial election, Oct 19, 2024Victoria andEsquimalt $632B.C. municipal policedepartments (all 11)$521Saanich $403Oak Bay $3112023: Victoria and Esquimalt: $598 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $490 per resident a year; Saanich: $350 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $335 per resident a year2024: Victoria and Esquimalt: $632 per resident a year; B.C. municipal police departments (all 11): $521 per resident a year; Saanich: $403 per resident a year; Oak Bay: $311 per resident a year

Tap or drag on the chart to read any year.

P provincial election: Oct 19, 2024

About these ticks

Targets and comparisons

Context measure: no target expected

  • Context measure: no target expected. A cost that follows the police budget set each year. A budget is a decision, not a target, and the Province’s Public Safety service plan sets none for it.

  • The B.C. municipal police departments (all 11), Saanich and Oak Bay lines are shown for comparison. They are not a goal.

How targets are chosen

Show the numbers as a table
Police cost per resident, municipal police departments in B.C. (newest first)
PeriodVictoria and EsquimaltB.C. municipal police departments (all 11)SaanichOak Bay
2024$632$521$403$311
2023$598$490$350$335

How it compares

B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, 2024, per resident a year. Comparisons are not goals.

Victoria and Esquimalt$632B.C. municipal police departments$521Saanich$403Oak Bay$311

Who decides

Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board. Oversees the Victoria Police Department, appoints its chief constable and prepares its budget. Police Act, s. 26

Show the 2 other bodies and the laws
Who decides what: Police cost per resident
BodyWhat it decidesLaw or bylawLast decisionNext decision
Victoria and Esquimalt Police BoardOversees the Victoria Police Department, appoints its chief constable and prepares its budget.Police Act, s. 26
Police Act, s. 27		Provisional budget due to the councils by November 30, 2026 (Police Act, s. 27)
Victoria and Esquimalt councilsApprove the police board’s budget. If they reject an item, either side can ask the Province to decide.Police Act, s. 27
Police Act, s. 27 (3)
Province of B.C.Sets standards for policing.Police Act, s. 40

Councils: last general local election October 17, 2026; next on October 19, 2030, the third Saturday of October set by the Local Government Act, s. 52. Province: last general election October 19, 2024; next set for October 21, 2028 unless called earlier (Constitution Act, s. 23).

Each row says what a body decides and links to the law, order or bylaw that gives it that role. It does not say who caused a change: markets, households and other governments also move these numbers. Who decides what, for every measure · How we choose

What this number does not show

  • From the Province's yearly “Police Resources in British Columbia” report; the earlier figure is from the previous year's edition. Costs are as reported by the municipalities and are not adjusted for inflation.
Two more limits
  • Population and costs cover both Victoria and Esquimalt. The Province's authorized-strength figure can differ slightly from the Statistics Canada figure because the two are counted at different times.
  • A better measure would be: Response-time percentiles against the department's targets, as a file. Not published as data. Not asked for yet.

Not measured yet in safety: response times: fire and bylaw, police response times, crime that is never reported and more. See all 17 gaps

In plain words

Total policing costs for the Victoria police service divided by the population it serves, with the number of Criminal Code offences per officer.

How we decide “Rising”

Whether policing costs should be higher or lower is a policy choice. The change is 5.7% of the earlier value, at or above the 5% threshold.

In 2024, total policing costs of $77,147,339 for a population of 122,157 ($632 per resident). 10,642 Criminal Code offences, 41 per officer, with 257 authorized officers (475 residents per officer).

Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series. The rule.

All notes on this number

Why it matters. Policing is the largest single part of the City budget. This puts it on a per-person scale. It does not measure what the spending achieved.

  • From the Province's yearly “Police Resources in British Columbia” report; the earlier figure is from the previous year's edition. Costs are as reported by the municipalities and are not adjusted for inflation.
  • Population and costs cover both Victoria and Esquimalt. The Province's authorized-strength figure can differ slightly from the Statistics Canada figure because the two are counted at different times.
  • Comparison, not a goal: the same table lists the 11 municipal police departments in B.C. Together they cost $521 per resident in 2024 ($490 in 2023). Costs differ with many factors, including the size of each place and the role of a regional centre. Places policed by the RCMP are in other tables of the report, with costs shared differently, and are not compared here.

A better measure

What
Response-time percentiles against the department's targets, as a file
Who could publish it
Victoria Police Department
Status
Not published as data. Not asked for yet.

This page uses the best public number we found. Data requests

Which places

Area: Victoria and Esquimalt police area

The area served by the Victoria Police Department: the City of Victoria and the Township of Esquimalt together.

Included

  • City of Victoria
  • Township of Esquimalt (also policed by the Victoria Police Department, under an agreement with the Province)

Not included

  • Saanich, Oak Bay, Central Saanich and the West Shore, which have their own police services or RCMP detachments
  • Crime statistics are published separately for the City of Victoria and for Esquimalt from 2020 on

Official definition

How the agency describes it: Victoria municipal police service area (City of Victoria and Township of Esquimalt).

How we got it

This number is published by the agency as shown; it is not calculated here. The script reads it from the agency’s own document and refuses to show it unless the expected text is found.

Municipal police departments in B.C., 2024

  • Victoria and Esquimalt: $632 per resident (2024). Population 122,157; total cost $77,147,339.
  • Vancouver: $606 per resident (2024). Population 757,849; total cost $459,626,680.
  • Nelson: $451 per resident (2024). Population 12,343; total cost $5,569,187.
  • West Vancouver: $440 per resident (2024). Population 52,280; total cost $22,980,516.
  • Abbotsford: $411 per resident (2024). Population 175,219; total cost $71,941,468.
  • Saanich: $403 per resident (2024). Population 125,444; total cost $50,588,365.
  • Delta: $401 per resident (2024). Population 127,830; total cost $51,269,317.
  • Port Moody: $398 per resident (2024). Population 38,943; total cost $15,503,831.
  • New Westminster: $397 per resident (2024). Population 92,435; total cost $36,723,541.
  • Central Saanich: $350 per resident (2024). Population 18,135; total cost $6,350,620.
  • Oak Bay: $311 per resident (2024). Population 18,803; total cost $5,842,974.
  • All 11 departments together: $521 per resident (2024). The report’s own Total row.

Licence and credits

This figure is public but not under an open licence: the agency publishes it for anyone to read, and it is shown here with credit and a link to the agency’s terms. About licences.

Licence
Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution. Agency’s terms of use
Updated by agency
Annually (report published about a year after the year ends); latest release Jan 13, 2026 (date of the agency’s file)
Retrieved
Nov 12, 2026, 1:45 PM B.C. time

Source: B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Police Resources in British Columbia, 2024. Public document, used with attribution; not endorsed by the publisher.

Inputs and results

What this pays for, or what goes into it

Inputs are money, staff or decisions; results are what services delivered. One does not prove the other moved. Kinds of measure

Results this pays for

Related measures

Spot a mistake?

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