Mayoral candidate Alex Lawson says he will raise the minimum number of police patrol cars in Ottawa if elected mayor on Oct. 26. On Saturday, the mayoral hopeful said he plans to increase the patrol minimum from 42 to 64. Lawson also said he would tie the minimum number of patrol cars in Ottawa to the city’s population so it can increase as the city grows. “In 1995 Ottawa had 721,000 people and 42 cars. Today we have 1.1 million people and 42 cars,” Lawson said in a news release. “The officers aren’t the problem. The math is.” The Ottawa Police Service is contractually obligated to maintain a minimum of 42 frontline patrol cars on duty at any given time, a target that was set in 1995. A 2025 report from Ottawa’s auditor general found the Ottawa Police Service’s frontline deployment targets were “outdated and increasingly difficult to sustain.” According to the report, police recognized the “insufficiency” of the contractual target and typically aimed to deploy 48 patrol vehicles instead of 42. While police targeted 48 patrol cars, the auditor general found the service was often only able to deploy 42 due to “frontline resource constraints.” Lawson says his plan would require an additional 110 police officers and cost $20 million per year. In addition to increasing the city-wide patrol car minimum, Lawson says he would establish minimums for each of Ottawa’s four policing districts. In a July report for the Ottawa Police Board’s Finance and Audit Committee, the police service said it had posted a $21-million budget deficit this year and the most significant financial burden was $10 million spent on “non-recoverable overtime” for policing events and protests. Lawson says he intends to request additional funds from the federal government to pay for the costs of policing protests, national events and embassies. He also says he would ask the province to provide additional funds for frontline officers and the proposed Ottawa Police Service training centre. What other candidates have pitched Mayoral candidate Neil Saravanamuttoo says he would ask the Ottawa Police Service Board to conduct a comprehensive comprehensive review of the Ottawa Police Service before approving any future budget increases. Incumbent Mark Sutcliffe says he plans to hire 200 more police officers, allocate police resources to priority areas and expand community policing. Jeff Leiper says he would shift non-core responsibilities of the police service to alternative response programs so police can focus on community safety. Leiper also says he would push for the federal government to cover the costs associated with policing in the national capital. Sutcliffe, Saravanamuttoo and candidate Leiper have all promised to expand the city’s non-police Alternative Neighbourhood Crisis Response, or ANCHOR, program, with Leiper saying he would tie its future growth to police budget increases. Election day is Oct. 26. Fourteen candidates are running to be mayor of Ottawa. In alphabetical order, they are: Queen Divine Priya Amber Bakshi, Zed Chebib, Bernard Couchman, Suraj Harish, Alex Lawson, Jeff Leiper, Geoff Nicholas, Josh Rachlis, Neil Saravanamuttoo, Ali Shayvard, Jacob Solomon, Mark Sutcliffe (incumbent), Amjad Ali Syed, and Peter Westaway.
