By Tan Mei Xi

Public safety hasn't necessarily improved despite increases to the budget of the Vancouver Police Department, Councillor Michael Wiebe told The PULSE on CFRO.

"When you look at the metrics, we're not actually delivering on what we need," said Wiebe. "We're having more calls, we're having more issues, so why are we continuing to increase [funding to the VPD] and not see the results?"

City Council is reviewing which services can be better served by organisations other than the VPD, said Wiebe. "When we're looking at safety and security, we need to make sure it's a systems approach, not just us cutting one component and not supporting another."

Wiebe noted the effort needs to be made jointly with other levels of government, which may have to step up to fund other services if the budget of the VPD is decreased.

"I think that we will see a shift in funding. What that dollar amount looks like, I can't say at this moment, because we really need to get the data... We need to know exactly what is being spent on what, look at what that outcome is we want, and where we can make those shifts."