A detailed Annual Corporate Safety and Security Report was just received by Hamilton City Council’s Public Works Committee in December, and it details that private security costs blew past $9.6 million in 2024.
Security guard service hours have also increased by 570 per cent over five years, going from 48,560 hours in 2019 to 325,473 in 2024.
Costs also increased by 45 per cent in only one year, between 2023 and 2024.
Data is not yet available for 2025.
The report details that the city has eight full-time security staff and one contracted staff member (representing 5.4 per cent of the total security workforce) and contracts third-party services for security equivalent to 156 full-time staff (representing 94.6 per cent of the total security workforce).
The city’s security is delivered by an organization called Canadian Protection Services and is made up of a 24-hour Security Operations Centre Team, a Mobile Security Guard Team, and Site Security Guard Teams.
In 2024, seven per cent of those hours (25,119) were spent on security at Hamilton City Hall, which has a minimum of two guards on-site at all times.
City Hall operating costs for security were $716,570.
A total of 33 per cent of the hours (105,444) were spent on security at other core properties, including Lister Block, the Provincial Offences Court, Frank A. Cooke Terminal, Ontario Works offices, parking garages, and Hamilton Stadium (formerly Tim Horton’s Field).
Those costs totalled $3.1 million.
A total of 23 per cent of the hours (68,940) were spent on security that supports the safe use of municipal programs and facilities and is not tied to a single location.
Those hours include the 24-hour Security Operations Centre, city-wide mobile patrols, park patrols, and escarpment stairs patrols.
In 2024, security also supported the encampment response and provided 24-hour washroom security at two parks and shower programs at two recreation centres.
Those costs totalled $2.1 million.
Finally, 37 per cent of the hours (115,543) went towards city-wide ad hoc services, such as short-term, seasonal, or project-specific security needs, such as for city construction projects.
Those costs totalled $3.5 million.
The report says that the 45 per cent increase in costs year-over-year is attributed to a “new contractual service rate and more significantly to escalating incidents of incivility, hostility, and workplace violence directed at elected officials and staff within government institutions.”
The Corporate Safety and Security department also spent more than $547,000 on approved capital projects in 2024, including upgrades to card access control systems, enhancements to CCTV and duress (panic) button technology, and renovations to the security guard desk.
The report also says that guards made 589 wellness checks in 2024, responded to 284 medical calls, and administered 115 doses of Naloxone (used for opioid overdose reversal).
The locations with the most security incidents were J.C. Beemer Park, City Hall, Frank A. Cooke Transit Terminal, Corktown Park, and Norman Pinky Lewis Recreation Centre.
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