New police chief must be super
Carding policy remains an open question as Saunders prepares to take over top job
Newly appointed Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders has a sense of humour. He’ll need it.
His civilian masters have unfairly placed him in a cauldron of their own making. The police board approved a controversial “carding” policy last week that has been excoriated as racial profiling, racist and discriminatory against black and brown citizens.
A day later, the board picked Deputy Chief Saunders as the force’s first black chief. He’s expected to clean up the mess. And reporters asked him Monday if his black experience gives him an advantage.
“Being black is fantastic, but it doesn’t give me super powers,” Saunders said. “If you are expecting that all of a sudden the earth will open up and miracles will happen, that’s not going to happen.”
Indeed. Saunders, 52, assumes one of the most incendiary jobs in the city when Chief Bill Blair departs on Saturday. He’ll need super powers. And being black shouldn’t hurt either. Saunders knows in his heart what it’s like to be a young black man in Toronto. And the challenges of being a black cop on a force that has come a long way from an all-white bastion to one now led by the son of Jamaican immigrants who rose through the ranks and held the serious posts that real police respect (homicide, ETF, drug squad).
He sat on the joint police-community committee that drafted 31 recommendations to drastically reform how police interact with citizens. But Saunders didn’t buy into the reforms the way Peter Sloly did. Saunders was more Bill Blair in his approach — so much so that Sloly, his senior on the file, removed him from the lead position.
(Now, of course, the tables have been turned. Saunders is the boss; Sloly the rejected one, losing the contest for chief ).
The showdown between the two black deputies — their vision for policing and their affinity with the rank and file as opposed to the targets of carding — is a significant lesson in drawing conclusions about what a black chief might do.
Had Sloly won the job, carding would be fixed, or reformed the way the police board wanted in 2014. With Saunders in place, it’s an open question. History says he won’t go as far — unless he has a Damascus Road experience.
Saunders the black man and black cop probably has unique insights. But they don’t guarantee reform, neither suggest it. And, unlike the narrative from the Toronto police board Monday, the evidence doesn’t necessarily point to Saunders being a “transformational” police chief.
In fact, his history suggests otherwise. He is not a visionary, an innovator, someone who pushes the envelope. But he doesn’t have to be.
Saunders is entitled, as any of the white guys before him, to be ordinary or brilliant; as insubordinate or co-operative with the police board as the next guy; to be run-of-the-mill or out of the box; or entrenched in bloating the police budget to new levels.
He’s a cop. Maybe that trumps everything. And if it does, then he’s just being one of the boys — his name added to the Adamson, Marks, Boothby, McCormack, Fantino markers in Toronto history. . .
When reporters asked Saunders about the bulging police budget that tops $1 billion, Saunders took refuge in “public safety.”
Asked about carding, he sought solace in “public safety.”
Asked about anything and the reflex response is to talk “public safety.” He’s the consummate, typical-thinking cop. Citizens can sleep well at night — so long as they don’t have relatives described as young black men.
For those citizens, four times as likely to be carded than the average white youth, walking the street could lead to unpleasant encounters with police — for no reason other than police think you are more likely to be a criminal. Chew on that, in Toronto, in 2015. How could that be tolerated?
Because they share Saunders’ heritage, African Canadians may feel a certain kinship and expectation that he might feel their pain.
Saunders’ challenge will be how he goes about keeping us safe. What messages does he send to the rank and file? How does he interpret the real divide that’s sprung up around carding and then translate the concern to the brass at police headquarters?
One thing is certain. Increasingly, the city’s black leadership feels disrespected and insulted. Many advocated, made phone calls, sent emails, wrote long documents, whispered in the ears of the powerful, appeared in public to unmask their pain. And they got next to nothing for their efforts. They have no clout, no influence, no power. The subtext to the numerous emails circulating around town today is this: “They don’t respect us. We are like nothing to them.”
Saunders should watch the tape of the last police board meeting, the one that established carding so that Mayor John Tory could get a political win, not to increase safety.
Journalist Desmond Cole spoke about how he has stopped reporting on carding so he can advocate on the issue. He’s been carded about 50 times and feels like a prisoner in his own city.
“How are you going to quell this righteous anger I’m expressing in front of you today?” he asked. The board’s answer was to ignore Cole’s pleas and, led by Tory, in effect, card Cole again.
Cole has shown he can handle it. Decades of racial profiling has helped him create strategic bouts of outrage. Saunders, though, should not expect the kids on the street to show the same restraint. When he, on Monday, described the anger around carding as “collateral damage” he immediately got blowback at the news conference, from the African Canadian Legal Clinic. The Ontario Human Rights Commission and other rights groups are threatening legal action.
This issue is a ticking bomb, sitting on the most incendiary file in the city.
Enjoy your history-making achievement, Mr. Saunders. Your protestation aside, we do expect a miracle. Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca