The biggest share of the 2012 tax increase in Waterloo Region will go to the police force, but there are growing concerns about keeping that budget under control.

At the budget meeting on Wednesday, regional chair Ken Seiling said "All of the other regional services combined aren't getting an increase as big as police are."

That should help put more officers on the street, and Waterloo Regional Police Service Chief Matt Torigian says if the force gets 15 new hires this and the next, they'll be able to keep up with the community's demands.

Police Services Board chair Tom Galloway said at Wednesday's meeting, "So the chief will be able to hire some additional officers and some additional civilians to deal with the increased workloads."

The service is also making other changes to help manage costs even as the growing workload adds to the budget.

However, the question remains in many municipalities as to whether the cost of policing can be kept under control.

Seiling says "I think the affordability of the police services and fire services across Ontario is becoming increasingly an issue across the province."

A big part of the issue is that police spend most of their budget on salaries, and in Waterloo Region a wage increase is under negotiation.

That salary increase would be on top of the ‘retention pay' officers get after years of experience, and which cost taxpayers $1.9 million in 2011.

While the WRPS is looking to grow or at least maintain its force, some other North American municipalities are considering layoffs to manage costs.

In Paterson, New Jersey 125 police officers lost their jobs recently, one of a number of cities in that state dealing with multi-million dollar municipal budget deficits.

Layoffs were narrowly avoided in Toronto this year when the Police Services Board struck a deal with Chief Bill Blair to introduce a hiring freeze. Blair found other ways to cut the budget by millions of dollars.

But Torigian says the WRPS can't afford to lose any officers, "The number one goal for us is to ensure that we have the right number of human resources in our organization to respond to community demands and expectations."

He's hoping for an additional 15 hires in 2013, "If we can continue the hiring in 2013 that we started in 2012, we know that well have the right number of resources on our front line."

The Police Services Board isn't making any promises, though, nd Galloway says regardless of whether they're approved the service needs to become more sustainable.

"I think policing in general across the country and internationally has to be re-looked at for how it can be done in other ways, more economical ways."

Police say they have already saved $250,000 over the past few years on things like utilities, office supplies and training.

The force has also redesigned patrol zones, reassigned investigative officers to the front line and will soon rely on citizens to report minor crimes online.

It is also studying how the investigations branch works, to see if it can be more efficient.

Some say the public should be able to weigh in on how the police force is modernized if changes are being made.

Bruce Tucker, president of the Waterloo Regional Police Association, says "It should be a committee struck by responsible members of the community to come in, look at it and say we're not going to provide these services anymore. Get the public involved in this. It's truly going to be the ones that impact them."

For now, the impact on residents is an additional $21 on the average homeowner's property tax bill.

And the continued demand for more funding and more officers is likely to continue until the police service can manage its resources and catch up with demand.