Toronto police overhaul will lead to more officers in the community, John Tory says

There will be "more police officers in the community" if the changes put forward in an interim report on overhauling the Toronto Police Service are implemented, Mayor John Tory says, despite concerns that cost-reduction measures would take officers off the streets.

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The mayor appeared on CBC's Metro Morning Friday to discuss the 35-page report released Thursday by a special task force looking at transforming Toronto police. The report contains 24 recommendations that could save $100 million over three years, including a hiring and promotion freeze, merging or closing some police stations and disbanding the anti-violence unit known as TAVIS.

"Politicians in the past were subject to the fact that there would be fear created in them that the city was going to descend into chaos if you made some changes to the police service," Tory told Metro Morning.

That's no longer the case, he said.

The task force's report, Tory said, advocates putting "expensive, highly trained, educated police officers where they're really needed ... out catching the bad guys and making sure the bad guys don't get a chance to do the mischief and the crime that they do."

"I think a lot of people buy into that, and as a result it's going to be easier to withstand what I'm sure is going to be some sort of a suggestion that you're going to have fewer police officers in the community doing police work," Tory said.

Tory said he believes the changes will actually lead to more officers out in neighbourhoods doing police work. 

Mayor confident changes will go through

Consultations on the report's recommendations will take place throughout the summer, he said, meaning some of the proposals may change.

The Toronto Police Association has already voiced its concerns with a number of proposals put forward by the task force.

What doesn't change, Tory said, is the fact that the police force needs to be overhauled both to strengthen community ties and to keep the budget in check.

"You have the determination of a mayor who understands that it's past time to make a lot of these changes, mostly because it's about the maintenance of trust between the police and the community, which is the most important thing," Tory said.

"We have a super police service and I don't back away from that for one minute. But no organization in the 21st century can remain the same and have the status quo apply."

"I'm confident that these changes, or changes similar to these, will be made because they have to be."

For the first time ever, city council approved a budget for the force for 2016 that topped $1 billion.

'The approach has to be different'

Some of the task force's most scathing criticisms are aimed at TAVIS. The report recommends that the unit, which is sent into high-crime neighbourhoods, be disbanded and its members deployed to other parts of the service.

The report describes TAVIS as both insufficient and problematic. The program had "unintended impacts in communities, especially among racialized youth who felt unfairly targeted, which in turn impacted trust and confidence in the Service," the report notes.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said Thursday that under the new recommendations, more officers would be deployed to areas of the city where data suggest there are higher rates of violent crime.

Tory said TAVIS contributed to arrests and the seizure of guns from the communities. But, he admitted, it also caused "some erosion of trust in parts of the community and the police."

"There's no suggestion that we're not going to be trying to do the same thing to go into areas where there are problems and deploy police resources. In fact, this report says 'have the police where they're needed the most'… but I think the approach has to be different in order to get that trust back."

As for community concerns that closing police stations — several divisions should close by 2017, the report recommends — would have a negative impact on policing, Tory responded: "What does the building have to do with community policing? Not much. So I think in the end this is going to be better.

"Once this is implemented this is much better for the presence of police in the community in a real, lasting way."