No room for failed policing

Queen’s Park has good reason to phase out funding for a bold policing strategy created a decade ago in response to Toronto’s deadly “summer of the gun.” The program appears to have lost its way. But what’s to replace it?

As reported by the Star’s Wendy Gillis, a government spokesperson has explained that a new “proactive, collaborative, and community-based model of policing” is being sought. The goal is to “work with local groups and prioritize community-based crime prevention.”

Similar language is used to justify the controversial Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy that is now losing funding. According to the Toronto police website, “an essential part of TAVIS is engagement with community members.” The program’s success is based on “enhancement of public trust and confidence, and the building of relationships within the communities most affected by violence.”

Unfortunately, by that standard, TAVIS’s performance has been less than stellar. Instead of winning over people in troubled neighbourhoods, it has left them increasingly mistrustful of police.

The program involves having specialized, rapid-response units saturate areas of the city where violence is a problem, gathering intelligence and — supposedly — winning residents’ support. But, as reported by the Star’s Patty Winsa, troubling incidents involving TAVIS officers include a case where a gun was drawn on teenagers in community housing, a history of arbitrary stops and searches, allegations of assault and a public strip search in broad daylight.

Whatever replaces this flawed approach must do a better job of reaching out and restoring hope. According to the province, consultations are now underway with police and municipalities toward what’s vaguely described as a new, more flexible funding model better serving community needs. One can only hope it succeeds. Residents struggling to cope in Toronto’s high-crime districts need more than empty platitudes.

While it’s not clear what’s to follow, Queen’s Park has begun reducing its commitment to TAVIS by cutting the program’s budget from $5 million to $2.63 million, starting in January. The Toronto Police Service is now considering its next step, including the possibility of maintaining TAVIS at current levels using other funds. That would be a mistake.

Chief Mark Saunders has already generated considerable public outrage through his stubborn refusal to ban carding, preferring instead to reform this discredited practice. It would be extremely ill-advised to stick with TAVIS given the program’s flaws and in the face of dwindling provincial support.

That’s especially the case since a 2010 Star investigation found that TAVIS officers resorted to carding more often than any other police unit, stopping people who had committed no apparent crime in order to ask intrusive questions. Responses were recorded on special “contact cards” and put into a huge police database.

Furthermore, it was found that TAVIS officers were targeting a higher proportion of black people — 41per cent of everyone carded, compared to 23 per cent by other police units. (Census data listed just 8.4 per cent of Toronto’s population as black.) It’s a pattern consistent with racial profiling.

Given all this, the province is correct in holstering its commitment to TAVIS. But it needs to take clear aim at what comes next.

Likewise on the future of carding. Queen’s Park is conducting consultations with the goal of reforming the practice. Officials are operating under an assumption that carding, when properly done, represents a “necessary and valuable tool for police.”

But there’s no empirical evidence of that. There’s no solid proof that any law enforcement benefit stemming from this toxic practice actually outweighs the potential harm. What’s more, as the Star revealed earlier this week, provincial officials haven’t bothered to ask police for data on carding’s effectiveness.

That reveals a regrettable lack of due diligence. Instead of pretending that carding has merit and working to reform it, a more responsible approach would be to drop it until there’s actual proof that it’s worth keeping.

Until such evidence is produced, carding belongs with TAVIS on the list of policing strategies that should be tossed out.