THUNDER BAY – In order for police services to get more efficient the whole judicial system needs to get more efficient.

That’s what Thunder Bay Police Service chief J.P. Levesque told the police services board during their monthly meeting on Tuesday when presenting the first quarter variance report, which showed the force was in the red by $218,300 from January through March.

That number represents less than one per cent of the quarterly budget.

The police service is forecasting a year-end overrun of $194,900 in court time costs, despite 80 per cent of officers attending court not having to testify. Often, in non-major cases, the matter is resolved in the courtroom before the officer takes the stand.

It’s a nationwide problem that has caught the attention of the Canadian Association of the Chiefs of Police, which recently released a report to its members.

“There are certainly things we can do as a police service but it’s broader than that,” he said. “There needs to be some community based help and provincial help as well.”

Locally, the police service has worked to try to improve the situation.

“We have found some efficiencies with the provincial offences court where we ask the city, who looks after that, to not schedule our officers on their days off or night shift and to schedule them on their day shift when they’re on duty already,” Levesque said.

The force was initially projecting a year-end negative variance of $361,600 from the $36.89 million operating budget, but that was reduced once they learned they will receive more than $206,000 from the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse fund.

That reduces the forecasted shortfall to $155,100.

The budget last year was plagued by 11 murder cases as well as a number of other major investigations that resulted in overtime costs skyrocketing.

The police service finished last year $350,000 over the initial $36.5 million budget.

Levesque was asked if the budget overrun, despite a lack of significant cases so far this year, is a cause for concern.

“When we saw a year like last year in terms of major investigations the court cases soon follow,” he said.