Task force may recommend merging Toronto police divisions, disbanding transit patrol: sources

A task force set up to help modernize the Toronto Police Service is expected to recommend this week a number of sweeping changes designed to rein in the police budget, sources have told CBC News.

The Transformational Task Force, announced by Mayor John Tory in February, is scheduled to report to the Toronto Police Services Board at a meeting on Friday. Chaired by Toronto Police Services Board chair Andy Pringle and Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders, it is made up of six civilians and six police officers.

• Toronto police services board may overhaul TAVIS unit, sources say

Sources say it may recommend merging some of the 17 Toronto police divisions in order to reduce the amount of money paid in property tax, and disbanding the police Transit Patrol Unit.

The report may also recommend — as CBC News Toronto first reported on Monday — making changes to the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy(TAVIS), which is a unit deployed to high-crime areas to decrease violence and increase safety.

Coun. Shelley Carroll, a member of the police services board who represents Ward 33, Don Valley East, said the intent of the recommendations will not be to reduce policing in Toronto but to use existing resources in a more-cost effective way. The aim is to find savings of at least $25 million.

"We're not looking at jeopardizing safety anywhere. But there are different ways to deliver safety in different parts of the city's operations," she said.

Councillor backs elimination of TAVIS

Scarborough-Centre councillor Michael Thompson, himself a former member of the police board, said he would support the elimination of TAVIS.

Thompson said he thought the unit was a good thing when it was introduced in 2007, but that since then many in the communities where it operates have complained about excessive force being used — including doors being broken down — in the search for firearms.

"There was just a general distrust that was created by the unit itself," Thompson told CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

Some in the community, Thompson said, have referred to TAVIS as an "occupying force."

Thompson said he's also concerned about the increase in carding that's been connected to TAVIS.

Still, the councillor said, if the unit is scrapped then something should replace it in the city's high-crime neighbourhoods, as he doesn't want less effective policing.

Report to avoid 'ham-fisted' cuts

Carroll said the report will recommend reorganizing the police to focus on preventative work and creating community goodwill by getting more eyes on the street. 

Carroll said the recommendations are expected to suggest permanent cuts to the police budget that are sustainable, not what she called "ham-fisted."

She said disbanding the police Transit Patrol Unit would not jeopardize safety in any way on the Toronto Transit Commission. The unit has 78 officers and was set up in 2009.

"Police will still be responding to calls in all transit stations," she said. "We will still have a secure transit system. But the task force is recommending that we disband that unit and taking those police officers and putting them to work in more strategic opportunities."

TTC has its own security force

Police set up the transit patrol unit seven years ago in an attempt to be more proactive when crimes occurred on the subway system.

Brad Ross, spokesperson for the TTC, said the TTC has its own Transit Enforcement unit with about 40 special constables and about 80 fare inspectors. Special constables do not carry guns, but they do carry pepper foam, handcuffs and batons. They can make arrests on reasonable grounds, he said.

Ross said the special constables have been trained in use of force up to a standard that a police officer would receive.

"There's always been some type of security system on the TTC," he said.

Ross declined to comment on any impact that disbanding the police Transit Patrol Unit would have on the TTC.

According to Carroll, the board would have to accept the task force recommendations, then include them in its 2017 budget presentation to the police chief. "This is their first presentation to us," she said. 

In February, Tory said the task force was expected to bring forward recommendations on "cost containment, modernizing operations, producing real and sustainable reductions to the budget and building public trust."

The task force includes the following members, in addition to Pringle; former Toronto auditor general Jeffery Griffiths; former city budget chief David Soknacki; long-time city activist Ken Jeffers; Trillium Health Partners CEO and change management expert Michelle E. DiEmanuele; and CivicAction CEO Sevaun Palvetzian.