‘Biggest transformation’ facing force
Distrust fed by racial profiling, violent interactions with citizens
The vows of public officials to change the way Toronto is policed follow an unparalleled period of turmoil for the thin blue line in this city.
Criticism over carding and racial profiling, lingering resentment over heavy-handed tactics during the G20 Summit and a series of violent police interactions with vulnerable people have fuelled public distrust.
The civilian oversight board’s pick for chief, Mark Saunders, remains controversial.
Critics label him the status quo choice over reformer Peter Sloly, the deputy chief in the news recently for his blunt talk about policing.
And while Toronto Police Service and other forces across the province once got their budget requests rubber-stamped, today there are reports, expert panels and even summits addressing the rising and unsustainable cost of policing, even as crime rates have fallen. Big changes appear to lie ahead. Toronto Mayor John Tory has acknowledged the need for “significant” reform and said Saunders agrees.
In Ontario, the province is set to overhaul the Police Services Act, which could represent “the biggest transformation of policing in 25 years,” Yasir Naqvi, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, has said.
“Whether or not folks in the policing establishment are ready, it’s happening,” says Anthony Morgan, a lawyer with the African Canadian Legal Clinic.
More than half of Ontarians surveyed in a poll last November said they wanted their tax dollars to go toward social services, including initiatives to tackle poverty. Less than one-quarter of respondents wanted that money put toward more policing. Yet there is optimism. Robert Chrismas, a staff sergeant with the Winnipeg police, believes the future for policing success lies in a more holistic approach. He is the author of the peer-reviewed 2013 book Canadian Policing in the 21st Century.
“Just arresting gang members, throwing them in jail, oftentimes they come out worse,” Chrismas told the Star.
“If we’re just reacting and not reducing victimization and crime, then what are we doing? We’re spinning our wheels. We need to be proactive and get at the root causes and bring in the other service sectors.” A KPMG report that includes sweeping recommendations to modernize the Toronto Police Service concluded the force needs to adopt “new, innovative ways of delivering services and business to the citizens of the city.”
The controversial proposals — fewer uniformed officers and closing divisions, for instance — received the most attention.
But the consultants also singled out some recent initiatives as “great opportunities” for Toronto police to build on. They included the multi-agency partnership “hub” in Rexdale and the Emergency Task Force’s joint initiative with social workers.
The “hub” model is a concept that started in Prince Albert, Sask., and is gaining traction across Canada.
Scott McKean, the city’s community development manager, calls the Rexdale hub a “game changer.” It allows police and a cross-section of social service providers to work to- gether to prevent “situations leading to criminal behaviour.”
“What we’re trying to do is get in front of situations,” McKean said last week, adding that “silo approaches don’t work.
“If we’re not looking for consistent innovations, then we’re relying on what we’ve always done, that’s always a problematic place (for a) service provider.”
Morgan said he’s encouraged by the initiative.
“We have so many more needs other than providing boots-on-theground officers. There’s so much more we could do to decrease the need for officers.”
Deputy Chief Sloly was making that point in his remarks that sparked outrage from the police union.
He is a major believer in the Rexdale hub model, which leads to “less police work to be done.” In his “ideal world,” Sloly would also like officers to “embed” themselves in communities, focusing not on enforcement but prevention.
While some officers will say, “I’m not a social worker,” in fact, “social work, health work, community resilience work, is the vast majority of the work police officers do,” he told the fellowship program at MaRS.
Chrismas says changing organizational culture and attitudes within the policing world is a challenge, but “the more progressive minds, these days, are thinking proactive, getting at the root causes of reducing crime over the long run,” he said.
“There are still those who feel police have no role in partnering with other service sectors . . . and there’s a mindset, call it the old-school police mindset, that the police mandate is to investigate crimes, period.”