In this issue:
1. No Freedom of Information
2. Toronto police strategic plan
3. Officers collude on evidence?
Toronto Police Accountability Bulletin No. 155, February 20, 2025.
This Bulletin is published by the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition (TPAC), a group of individuals and organizations in Toronto interested in police policies and procedures, and in making police more accountable to the community they are committed to serving. Our website is http://www.tpac.ca .
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In this issue:
1.No Freedom of Information
2. Toronto police strategic plan
3. Officers collude on evidence?
4.Subscribe to the Bulletin
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1. No Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information legislation outlines a process for government bodies to provide information of what they are doing. Using that legislation, a criminology student, doing a practicum with TPAC for her degree, contacted 17 large Ontario police services in November to ask them how much they spent each year on officers suspended with pay. The legislation requires that they respond to requests within 30 days.
We assumed it was quite simple. She did not want names of officers, only to know how much had been spent for this and preceding years by each police force. It is public money, and she thought it would be simple for police forces to tell us what they had spent.
Some three months later, six police forces, including Toronto and the Ontario Provincial Police, have yet to respond even though the legislation requires a response within 30 days. Five forces have said this is not information we can have: it is an employment matter, and thus it is outside of what is required under the legislation – even though it might be public money and we are not asking for names.
Three police forces said they would provide the information, but it would cost a considerable sum - Waterloo police quoted $420; London, $180; Durham, $270.
Only Niagara Regional Police has provided the info for the $5.00 fee: in the last five years, the amounts Niagara police spent on officers suspended with pay has varied from $157,000 to $81,000, involving between five and eight officers.
Police forces interpret the Freedom of Information Act differently. Section 52(3) states; “This Act does not apply to records collected, prepared, maintained or used by or on behalf of an institution in relation to any of the following: (3). Meetings, consultations, discussions or communications about labour relations or employment-related matters in which the institution has an interest.”
Police discretion or simply covering up?? It is difficult to believe any police force which says it is transparent yet refuses to comply with the legislation.
CBC reports that from 2013 to 2024, suspended officers in Ontario have received more than $134 million in pay. See https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-police-suspensions-have-cost-taxpayers-1-3m-so-far-in-2024-1.7170161#:~:text=CBC%20News's%20data%20reveals%20that,of%20%2431%20million%20for%20taxpayers
We are continuing to pursue this matter. It was just discovered that one Toronto police officer, Ronald Joseph, convicted of fraud for insurance claims for fake car accidents, has been suspended with pay for four years, at more than $100,000 a year. See https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/toronto-cop-suspended-with-pay-since-2020-gets-conditional-sentence-for-fraud-scheme-to-stage/article_54b8d752-e957-11ef-93d6-b3716c6dccb0.html
2. Toronto police service Strategic Plan
The Community Safety and Policing Act requires that police services adopt a strategic plan. The Toronto Police Service Board is holding Strategic Plan Consultations, virtually, on February 25, 2025, from 1:00-3:30pm, and February 27, 2025, from 6:00-8:30pm. See https://tpsb.ca/strategicplan.
The work staff has done to date is very fluffy, as one might expect. Here are some specific ideas that police should be considering, with the section of the Act specifying what is required in a strategic plan:
"2. The objectives, priorities and core functions of the police service.
Our suggestion; Core functions: focus on property and personal crime, including prevention of serious crime including violent and economic crimes, and identifying and prosecuting those responsible for such crimes.
Issues of community order, safety, and crime prevention should be relegated in large part to community agencies, and police should play a secondary role to these agencies. As community agencies gain the resources and responsibility for these issues, police resources will be scaled back and police funding will be transferred to these agencies.
"3.i. the provision of community-based crime prevention initiatives, community patrol and criminal investigation services.
Our suggestion: The service will develop a true community policing program where the community is actively involved at every stage of the process.
Outcomes must indicate how specific police programs have created change, including the cost of such programs, recognizing that most commentators have concluded that community-based crime prevention is generally ineffective.
"3.ii. community satisfaction with the policing provided.
Our suggestion: Where community satisfaction with police services within particular communities is unsatisfactory, changes will be proposed in conjunction with those communities to improve levels of satisfaction, including the reduction of some police services.
"3.ix. road safety
Our suggestion: Road safety issues should be generally handled by civilians and police resources now devoted to it will be reduced.
"7. Resource planning.
Our suggestion: To ensure that innovative practises are considered and adopted by the police service, two per cent of the annual operating budget will be assigned to a Research and Development function.
3. Officers collude on evidence?
In April 2024, Toronto police Chief Demkiw ordered investigations into the activities of three members of the Toronto Police service in the Zameer case. In April 2024, Umar Zameer was acquitted of charges surrounding the death of Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy wondered publicly whether Constables Lisa Forbes, Antonio Correa, and Scharnil Pais, the three officers who witnessed the incident, colluded in their evidence, considering all three had the same incorrect memory of what happened.
Chief Demkiw said the issues in the case, including the remarks of the judge about possible officer collusion, would be referred to the Ontario Provincial Police and the Toronto Police Professional Standards branch.
It has been ten months since these investigations were ordered. What is the current status of these investigations: when will they be concluded; and when will they be released to the public?
We recently asked the new chair of the Toronto Police Service Board Councillor Shelley Carroll, where these investigations stood. She replied, “It is my understanding that the investigations into these important issues are ongoing at this time, with a number of interviews scheduled in the near future. As you will appreciate, the Chief is necessarily keeping an arm’s length from the OPP investigation, to preserve the essential independence of this review, and ensure that its results have the confidence of the public.
“As a result, at this time, no further information can be shared publicly. Once we are advised about any timelines for the release of information as it relates to the investigations, we will release them publicly, as appropriate.”
Ten months and waiting. Has it been that difficult to arrange interviews?
4. Subscribe to the Bulletin
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