Toronto police are facing online backlash after releasing a video lobbying for increased budgetary funding, all despite their best efforts to limit the public's comments on the matter.

The force shared a video via social media on Monday presenting statistics to support its call for increased funding. However, the veracity of those statistics has been called into question, along with other public concerns over the brief 22-second clip.

The Globe and Mail's Oliver Moore was among the commenters on X who raised questions about the statistics.

per the census, Toronto is up about 450,000 people since then -- an 18pc rise. In inflation-adjusted terms the police budget is up 31pc. There's only 37 more cops? https://t.co/daOOUbLjUW

— Oliver Moore (@moore_oliver) January 23, 2024

While Moore is drawing from City census figures, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) has cited its sources to blogTO, explaining that past statistics were pulled from the City of Toronto and Statistics Canada, while the 2023 projected population of 3,135,243 was sourced from StatCan and the Ontario Ministry of Finance.

Another point of contention is how police have disabled commenting on their post, though hundreds have quoted the post criticizing the logic, statistics, and limited means of public commentary.

One of the top replies asks, "is the increase in emergency calls why you guys turned off replies? Or is it that with a 121 per cent increase in budget in that time you've only managed to get 37 more officers?"

A police representative tells blogTO that "TPS made the decision to disable comments in November 2023 after repeated discriminatory, sexist, racist and threatening messages were left on our social media platforms."

"Without resources to constantly monitor, delete and block these comments and users, the decision was made to no longer enable that type of commentary."

Many are wondering aloud how the police managed to chew through over half a billion dollars in budget increases while only hiring a few dozen new officers. One community group expressed their confusion with the popular 'bad trade' meme.

https://t.co/dCKqIrhVIH pic.twitter.com/88Ef7ntFMA

— Toronto Citizens Collective (@TOCitizensCo) January 23, 2024

A few have raised questions about the use of the police's social media accounts for political lobbying. One user wrote, "should this account be used for political lobbying? Seems like it probably shouldn't be used for political lobbying," CCing the City of Toronto Ombudsman on the exchange.

When asked if the video was created using taxpayer dollars, a police representative stated that the clip was "made in-house by our staff," which suggests that a publicly-funded employee may have produced this video while on the clock.