Departure of deputies complicates search for next chief
Loss of two top female officials seen as major setback for police service
Shortly after it was given the rubber stamp by the Irish government last week, Toronto police sent out a press release congratulating deputy police chief Shawna Coxon — second in command to the chief — for being named to a high-profile role as a commissioner in Ireland’s national police force.
The same day, the city’s police board echoed the congrats to Coxon and also to deputy chief Barbara McLean, who has left the service on what’s expected to be a lengthy secondment to the Mass Casualty Commission, the inquiry into the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
“A remarkable testament to their incredible leadership capabilities,” the board’s statement read in part.
Doubtless worthy of public accolades, the loss of the highranking officers in Canada’s largest municipal police service nonetheless represents a blow to a force aiming to modernize and diversify, critics say — and perhaps most pressingly, to the Toronto police board’s ongoing search for the next top cop.
“To see both women leave at the same time is very disappointing,” said Notisha Massaquoi, a past co-chair of the Toronto police board’s anti-racism advisory panel, noting that as deputies they were “strong” candidates for chief.
“It’s a loss, to lose two females leaders when we have so few female executives, whether or not they were to ascend to the chief’s job in Toronto or elsewhere in Canada,” said Norm Taylor, who for 20 years has run a police executive-leadership development program through the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
Set off last June with the sudden, early departure of former chief Mark Saunders, the seven-member Toronto police board’s search for the next chief is set to be among the longest in the force’s history.
Unlike any before it, it’s taking place amid the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented pressure for change — calls to defund the police, end police brutality against Black and Indigenous people and remove officers from certain kinds of calls, including mental health emergencies.
The departures of two deputies — the rank from which chiefs are often chosen — can only complicate a search that some critics say is already taking too long.
“It is absolutely wild that it’s
taken Toronto almost a year and they *still* haven’t hired a replacement Chief of Police,” tweeted Michael Gendron, communications officer with the Canadian Police Association, in reaction to news of the deputies’ departures.
In a statement, police board executive director Ryan Teschner said the roles Coxon and McLean’s selection for the high-profile new jobs is a testament to Toronto police’s “ongoing commitment to support the development of police leaders,” and “the continued emphasis it places on the development of female police leaders in the organization.”
The ongoing chief selection process, meanwhile, “will be characterized by the most wide-ranging, in-depth and transparent public engagement approach possible,” he said, but during a pandemic “the engagement will, necessarily, take longer.”
Happening online, public consultations will begin “in the coming weeks,” the board said, and will include a wide variety of focus groups and meetings with youth, community leaders and organizations. A chief’s job description will then be drafted based on the public feedback, and the executive search firm hired last November will begin its work in earnest, the board said.
“We fully expect the process to conclude in 2021 with the announcement of a new chief,” Teschner said.
Alok Mukherjee, who was the chair of the Toronto police board from 2005 to 2015, said the board has a major challenge in front of it and the search ought to be careful and deliberate — “these are critical times” — but the extended timeline “is still longer than necessary.”
Police organizations urgently need reform, said Taylor, and that requires a clear and consistent vision from leaders conveying to the membership that “this is where we’re headed ... It’s almost impossible to do that in an acting structure.”
Interim Chief James Ramer could be in the position for a year or more while decisions with long-term impacts are going ahead.
That includes upper-level promotions of superintendents and inspectors — moves that mean the incoming chief inherits staffing decisions instead of making them.
Audrey Campbell, former president of the Jamaican Canadian Association, supports the board taking time to find the right candidate and in the meantime sees significant progress being made under Ramer — “we have somebody competent at the helm,” she said. In particular, she mentioned the recent launch of the force’s Know Your Rights campaign, which promotes awareness of citizens’ rights during interactions with police.
The campaign is part of a relaunched Police and Community Engagement Review, a committee co-chaired by Campbell that aims in part to improve relations between police and the city’s Black communities.
As the board moves forward, Massaquoi stressed the importance of public updates on the status of the search and “a very specific, distinct consultation with members of the Black community.”
“Our relationship with the police is very fraught, and particularly in the Black community, there’s a lack of trust,” she said.