Industry Newsfirst responder mental healthmunicipal budgetpublic safety
Kingston Police Face Rising Absence Costs
5.0
Kingston Police expect absence-related costs to reach $7.3 million in 2026, covering salaries and benefits for about 40 officers who are non-deployable due to long-term absences, accommodations or leave, the police board reported. Most cases are tied to presumed work-related PTSD under Ontario law, up from $5.9 million and 31 officers in 2025, and the board approved a $57 million operating budget for 2026.
Key Points
- 1Project costs: Kingston projects $7.3 million for salaries and benefits for 40 non-deployable officers in 2026.
- 2Cause: Majority of absences stem from presumed work-related PTSD, reflecting increased recognition and reporting.
- 3Implication: Hiring offsets fail to increase frontline staffing, straining municipal budgets and reducing on-street capacity.
Scoring Rationale
Local budget and health data provide credible, actionable insight, but limited novelty and narrow municipal scope reduce broader impact.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
Practice with real Health & Insurance data
90 SQL & Python problems · 15 industry datasets
Used by DS/ML engineers at top companies
250 free problems · No credit card
See all Health & Insurance problems
