Experts warn of return to tough approach
A 2016 report found that TAVIS-style policing led to “unintended impacts on communities.” TAVIS force formed after 2005 violence left communities feeling ‘constantly harassed’
Seeking re-election amid accusations he was soft on crime, former Mayor David Miller declared confidently in 2006 that the city had swiftly curbed the violence that rocked Toronto the previous year, declaring in a debate that “we’ve said no to guns and gangs.”
He had the statistics to back it up. After a bullet-laden year that saw 52 gun-related homicides, 2006 brought a signif- icant drop in shooting deaths and occurrences.
By the end of 2006 the number of gun deaths had fallen to 28, and overall homicides were down to 67 from 79.
Miller and others gave credit for the change to the Toronto Anti-Violence In- tervention Strategy (TAVIS), the provincially funded special task force created in the wake of the Summer of the Gun.
The program saw specialized teams of police doing what’s called “surge policing” — upping the presence of uniform officers in areas prone to shootings and gang-violence.
The original idea was that TAVIS officers would serve as both as a deterrent to crime and a mechanism to collect intelligence about gang and violencerelated activity.
That information collection, however, ultimately earned TAVIS the notoriety of having the highest rate of any Toronto police unit for carding, the controversial practice of stopping and documenting people not suspected of a crime. The negative impact that caused, particularly on racialized communities, was among the reasons why the unit was disbanded in 2017.
But amid high-profile incidents of gun violence this summer, some are now calling for the reinstatement of TAVIS-style policing and carding-gathered intelligence. Premier Doug Ford, who declared his support for TAVIS earlier this year, is committed to restoring provincial funding for anti-gang and anti-gun task forces in Toronto, a spokesperson said this week.
On Thursday, as first reported by Global News, a leaked letter from a veteran Toronto police officer, Mark Hayward, blasted Mayor John Tory for being a “direct contributor” to gun violence in the city — in part for supporting the cancellation of TAVIS, which Hayward claimed “kept gangs at bay and always looking over their shoulders.”
Meanwhile, in comments made to Peel politicians last month, Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans claimed new carding regulations introduced by the previous Liberal government, which ban arbitrary police stops, have “empowered” criminals and led to an increase in crime in Peel.
But crime researchers and community advocates say the city must not make the same mistakes seen in the wake of 2005 violence, by resurrecting a brand of policing that created a rift between officers and whole communities.
Scot Wortley, a University of Toronto criminologist, said TAVIS was “aggressive, proactive (policing) that targeted communities and not individuals.” The program cast a wide web of suspicion that caught people who were either not involved in crime at all, or were involved in minor crime.
“When you target an entire community, you sever the ties with that community, you create a crisis of confidence and that can actually, in the long run ... can hurt your ability to effectively investigate gang crime in the community,” Wortley said. “If the community feels that you do not have their best interests in mind, because they feel that they are constantly harassed, this can really cause a problem.”
Anthony Morgan, who specializes in human rights law at Falconers LLP, cited multiple examples of high-profile incidents in which TAVIS officers targeted racialized communities.
That includes 2011’s Neptune Four case — which is still being heard at the Toronto police disciplinary tribunal — involving four young Black teens who were on their way to an after school program in Lawrence Heights when they were stopped by TAVIS officers. The encounter escalated into a dangerous arrest where an officer pulled a gun on the teens.
TAVIS, Morgan said, “alienates racialized members of our community, especially African Canadians.”
In a 2016 report, Toronto police acknowledged that TAVIS led to “unintended impacts on communities, especially among racialized youth who felt unfairly targeted.”
There will also be an emergency meeting next week between city staff and Toronto police to discuss their ongoing response to the gun violence.
A well-funded and focused approach that specifically targets individuals directly involved in crime is what should come next, Wortley said.
“I think that that’s an intelligent move, and I think it will result in the greatest accomplishment and I also think that it would be the strategy that would help build bridges with the broader community.”