The Smiths Falls Police Services came in about $500,000 under budget in 2025.
It’s great news after much noise was made when the town raised the budget by 19% heading into the year in a bid to catch up with rising police costs.
Chief Jodi Empey said lots of their costs were mitigated by successful grant applications.
Empey says when preparing a budget, you have to anticipate certain things.
There was a near $1.1 million increase to the SFPS budget in 2025.
Pending town council approval, the police budget for 2026 will increase 3%.
Empey said her quick review of other independent police forces that the 3% hike is the second lowest, with Thunder Bay Police Service with the lowest increase of 1% .
Empey said the service went over budget in 2025 with part time staff, overtime pay, and some unforeseen problems with their building, but remained under the $6.558 million budget as a whole.
The surplus will return to town reserves.
Story by Grant Deme
