Toronto police chief, association head clash over proposed budget cuts

Chief Mark Saunders is defending his plan to overhaul the Toronto police force, even if it could mean fewer officers in the city.

Saunders, who is part of a task force looking into major changes for the police force to slash its $1.1 billion budget, argued that modernizing the way police officers operate mean they will be able to do more with less. 

"We [will] only go to the calls where police that are highly trained need to go to. Right now, we go to everything," he told CBC Toronto's Metro Morning.

• 'It has to be done': Mayor Tory says police task force overhaul non-negotiable
• Toronto police stations to close, programs to disband in task force proposals: document

Earlier, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack blasted that idea, saying reducing the number of police officers will impact service delivery and response times.

"If we look at our numbers where we were in 2010, we had 5,635 officers. We're 400 less today than we were five years ago," he said.

"We've already seen priority one response times increase."

Saunders stressed that emergency call response time will not be affected by the changes.

"I've got an obligation to make sure we get to priority one calls within a specified time. It's the law," he said.

Transformational task force pushes major change

The call to reduce the number of police officers comes from an interim report put out by the 12-person transformational task force, struck by Mayor John Tory and co-chaired by Saunders.

The task force's goal is to update and modernize the Toronto Police Service, reimagining officer responsibilities and proposing $100 million in reductions and savings to its operating budget.

Some $60 million of those savings would come from a moratorium on hiring and promotions between ranks, which would result in 350 fewer officers by next year.

"It has to be done," said Tory in June when the interim report was released. "It's 2016, nobody's looked at these questions for decades."

On Metro Morning, Saunders explained how he thought fewer officers would be able to maintain the same level of service.

"We're taking away the things we don't need to do anymore. Why do we have officers doing school crossing guards? Why do we go to every single festival when we're not needed?" he said. 

We're taking away the things we don't need to do anymore.- Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders

Saunders said in the new plan, "technology will be leveraged" so that police officers can spend less of their time responding to non-emergency calls.

He also argued that the link between public safety and the number of police officers is not as closely connected as McCormack said.

"We had more officers in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. But right now, we have less homicides than in those years that we just mentioned," he said.  

Police morale at 'all-time low'

McCormack said that police morale was at "an all-time low," with officers stretched too thin and burning out as it is.

"The feel they are going from call to call, in a reactive mode, with no time for proactive policing," he said.

Saunders acknowledged that morale was suffering, but chalked it up to "fear of the unknown."

"The final report isn't out yet," he said. "People are concerned because they don't know what it is going to look like."

Saunders said that McCormack and the union are missing the big picture.

"It's not a budget report, it is about modernization," he said.  

The Toronto Police Association launched a campaign called "Stop the Toronto Police Cuts" last month. McCormack said their goal is to educate the public about the proposed changes so they can decide for themselves what they think.