In this issue:
1. Police Board budget debate
2. Gun violence declines in Toronto
3. TPAC Instagram account
4. Ontario Human Rights Commission report on racism
Toronto Police Accountability Bulletin No. 149, January 10, 2024.
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. Police Board budget debate
2. Gun violence declines in Toronto
3. TPAC Instagram account
4. Ontario Human Rights Commission report on racism
5. Subscribe to the Bulletin
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1. Police Board budget debate
On December 19, the Toronto Police Service Board heard 30 deputants, and received another eight letters regarding the 2024 operating budget for $1.2 billion. The budget proposes to increase the number of officers by 307, and the number of civilians by 100. It does not include any increase in salary for officers, since that will be negotiated with the Toronto Police Association in a new collective agreement. A salary increase of 2.5 per cent will add $25 million to the budget; an increase of 5 per cent will add $50 million.
Most of the budget debate among Board members focused on motions submitted by Toronto City Councillors Lily Cheng and Amber Morley.
Councillor Morley’s motion to get a report on the costs to Toronto police of dealing with international protests carried on a vote of 4 – 3, but her motion to get a report on hiring and long-term cost trends failed.
Councillor Cheng proposed a five-part motion calling for reports from the chief:
a) Examine the legal and operational feasibility of reducing reliance on officers for public events, and traffic and congestion, to be replaced by civilians and redeploy officers to other areas as needed with a report back in 2024;
b) Expedite the pilot project review and study reducing staffing requirements in police cars at night and include a timeline of potential implementation;
c) Report on the cost of all suspensions with pay in 2023;
d) Report on the total cost for recording, storage, redacting and analysis of all body camera footage in 2023; and
e) Provide the TPS Board with an update on the technology to report policing hours and how they are allocated in March 2024.
There was strong push-back from the police service and from the chair of the Board, Ann Morgan, to these requests for reports. Chair Morgan said on several occasions that she thought the motions were encroaching onto operational matters which she implied was beyond the authority of the Board. This is an old, tired and inaccurate argument to limit the Board’s control over policing matters.
Judge John Morden, who headed the Independent Civilian Review of the G20 Summit, concluded in his 2012 report that “The Board has limited its consultative mandate and viewed it as improper to ask questions about, comment on, and make recommendations concerning operational matters. The Board’s approach in this regard has been wrong.” (See Bulletin No. 69, July 11, 2012.)
Section 31(4) of The Police Services Act states: `The board shall not direct the chief of police with respect to specific operational decisions or with respect to the day-to-day operation of the police force.’ The Board is not constrained from questioning or enacting policy regarding police activities. One would expect Ms Morgan, a lawyer and a provincial appointee to the Board, to care a bit more about both the law and about what has been said about Board powers.
Police officials were also hostile to Councillor Cheng’s motions, which in large part were similar to suggestions in the brief submitted by TPAC. (See Bulletin No. 148.) In response to the TPAC brief, police stated that the move to more civilians to replace some police in traffic and ticketing, and parades and demonstrations, would save less than 1 per cent, although no details were provided and TPAC was not allowed to respond.
The chief wondered why there was a move to use more civilians, and then
said this was something already being considered, but gave no further information. He said that the issue of two officers in a car at night was a bargaining issue with the Police Association. He said the issue of reporting on body cameras was constrained by a ten year contract signed with Axon, the chief maker of Tasers, conducted energy weapons.
Some of Councillors Cheng’s motion was picked apart, but when the vote came, it lost 4 -3. The three members of council – Lily Cheng, Amber Morley and John Burnside – voted in favour. A key vote against was registered by Nadine Spenser, Mayor John Tory’s last appointment to the Board, who was so clear in her pro-police bias that progressive members of the city’s Appointment’s Committee voted against her. (See Bulletin No. 144, April 20, 2023.) She obviously had no interest in trying to represent the opinions of the body which appointed her.
Most remarkable is that Councillor Cheng was simply asking the chief to report on important issues: the chief and the majority of the Board opposed having to say what the police service is doing, or what the options might be. TPAC believes City Council should reconsider Cheng’s motions at the February 14 budget meeting to demand this information. And TPAC will ask Council to state that the wage settlement with the Police Association must be funded within the budget request of $1.2 billion, rather than being an additional expense.
Please consider contacting your councillor and the mayor on these issues.
2. Gun violence declines in Toronto
On December 23, four days after the Police Board confirmed the 2024 budget, police released data on gun violence in Toronto. For the fifth straight year it has declined. In 2019 there were 469 shooting or gun discharges, and 270 people killed or injured; in 2023, comparable figures were 326 and 153.
See https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/gun-violence-trend-2023-toronto1.7064901#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20the%20Toronto%20Police,153%20people%20killed%20or%20injured.
This substantial reduction in one serious crime does not fit with the police narrative that serious crime had increased 22 per cent – a narrative which, except for auto thefts, is not borne out by police data – so the police kept it secret until the Board had agreed to increase the police force by an additional 307 officers and 100 civilians. It raises serious questions about the good faith of police leadership.
As with all changes in the rate of crime, there are various theories about why gun violence has decreased. Police spokespeople says it is a result of police detection and intervention. Others say it is a result of federal moves to control guns crossing the border from the United States, and of the SafeTO program adopted by City Council.
3. TPAC’s Instagram account
TPAC has started an Instagram account that summarises key points of each bulletin to reach a wider audience and increase subscriptions to the full TPAC bulletin. Please follow our account and share our posts to your followers.
https://www.instagram.com/TorontoPoliceAccountability/
4. Ontario Human Rights Commission report on racism
The Ontario Human Rights Commission has issued its third and final report on anti-Black racism in the Toronto Police Force. Entitled `From Impact to Action’, it contains more than 120 recommendations, many of which get at the nitty-gritty of things that should be done, including more and better data collection, early intervention with officers, better monitoring, more accountability and transparency.
But the report also makes a number of recommendations about structural change, and substantial policy changes. For instance:
• Establish committees to implement the recommendations (rec. 2); and create a renewal fund to assist with community safety in Black communities
• Transfer functions now performed by police to community agencies, such as mental crisis calls, as well other social services now provided by police (rec. 7)
• Narrow grounds for permissible police stops (rec. 14)
• Expand the use of pre-charge diversion for both youths and adults, and make much more use of restorative justice (rec. 16)
• Limit the use of discretion for use of force by police (rec. 26); and lower the level of permissible use of force including requirement to report all uses of force, not just those causing noticeable physical harm (rec. 30 and 60)
• Require full reports on the use of Conducted Energy Weapons, just as with use of guns (rec. 35)
• More review on the use of Body Worn Cameras (rec. 70)
• Treat coroner inquest recommendations with much more seriousness. (rec. 80)
A number of recommendations are directed to the provincial government:
• Enact pre-charge screening, where crown attorneys rather than police lay charges, as in Quebec and British Columbia (rec. 88). (This means the number of charges rejected by the courts or withdrawn is substantially less – a significant issue since two third of the charges laid by Toronto police are withdrawn or rejected by the courts.)
• Consider situations where officers are deployed and lethal weapons are not required, with a view to reducing the number of armed officers. (rec. 91)
• Ensure there is greater transparency of police discipline
• Civilianize non-emergency police functions (rec. 101, also in rec. 7)
The full report may be found at https://www3.ohrc.on.ca/en/impact-action-final-report-anti-black-racism-toronto-police-service . Many of the recommendations have also been made by TPAC during the past six or seven years.
The Toronto Police Service says it will respond to the report in March 2024. The issue for the public will be to get the police to make meaningful changes, something which has been difficult in the past, particularly when the police service and the Police Board challenged those who want serious change, as they attacked those who said the service was involved in systemic discrimination, as with carding, rather than agreeing to change policies and procedures.
5. Subscribe to the Bulletin
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this Bulletin, please send a note to info@tpac.ca with the instructions in the subject line or in the text of the message. Our e-mail list is confidential and will not be made available to others. There is no charge for the Bulletin. Our website is http://www.tpac.ca .
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