A road map for reform
When they’re instructed to find savings, Toronto police chiefs have long claimed they are handcuffed by a system that dedicates almost 90 per cent of spending to salaries and benefits. Since these are locked in by collective agreements, there isn’t much room to trim a police budget now soaring beyond $1 billion. At least, that’s always been the official excuse for ever-escalating costs.
Adifferent perspective comes courtesy of a $200,000 consultant’s report concluding that savings are possible through innovation, modernization and bold restructuring. These findings, by the respected firm KPMG, should serve as a road map for reform.
Several of the recommendations are controversial, including centralizing the force instead of keeping it split into 17 divisions; contracting out some jobs now done by uniformed officers; freezing capital spending; and dramatically expanding the role of civilians in the service. Some of these proposals need not be implemented, but all should be subjected to serious analysis with an eye to their practicality. In every case, there needs to be good reason not to proceed.
The Toronto Police Services Board is to consider the KPMG report this coming Thursday, and Mayor John Tory is displaying the right attitude in going forward. As reported by the Star’s Jennifer Pagliaro, when asked if the board should seriously consider these changes, his answer was an unequivocal “yes.” As, indeed, it should be.
More worrisome is the half-hearted response from board chair Andy Pringle. When asked about the report in the past, he dismissed its recommendations as “random suggestions” and described the study as merely “an internal think” document.
In a similar vein, police union president Mike McCormack brushed aside the consultant’s findings as nothing more than vague concepts. He took particular issue with some parts of the report, especially figures on how often highly paid officers are dispatched on routine calls.
According to KPMG, front line police staff responded to almost 644,000 calls in 2013 — most involving “non-emergency” matters such as parking enforcement or medical complaints. Handling parking alone accounted for 400,000 hours of staff time.
Not so, according to McCormack. He says the Toronto Police Association commissioned its own expert study and it found fewer than 5 per cent of calls in 2013 were for traffic- and parking-related matters, and that 82 per cent of calls were “crime-related.”
It shouldn’t be difficult for the police board to determine which of these dueling statistical reports is closest to the truth. If KPMG is, in fact, correct it would make a great deal of sense to consider outsourcing parking enforcement either to city hall, through the Toronto Parking Authority, or to a private company.
Other recommendations deserve the same sort of scrutiny and, where warranted, action.
Reform won’t be easy. McCormack and the police association can be expected to use every means at their disposal to protect the status quo. No municipal civil servants benefit more from taxpayers’ largesse than police, so the union is understandably reluctant to embrace change.
Savings, nonetheless, need to be found. The price of policing Canada’s largest city is soaring to unacceptable levels, even as crime rates fall. Costs need to be reined in if only to avoid starving other municipal services of necessary funds. The KPMG report has opened some intriguing avenues for reform and Toronto’s police board would be derelict in its duty if it failed to explore them.
KPMG report concludes that savings are possible through innovation, modernization and bold restructuring