City hall, police politics forced Sloly out. Royson James
Deputy chief’s calls for reform started long before they became a hot-button public issue
He never was one of the guys — the back-slapping, beer-drinking cop’s cop who defended the Thin Blue Line against all intruders.
In 27 years he rose up the ranks of the Toronto Police Service to within sniffing distance of the top job. And then the boys slapped him down.
Pure internal police and city hall politics conspired to keep Peter Sloly from becoming Toronto’s 20th chief of police last spring.
He was too smart, too progressive for his own good. He dared to tell his colleagues he wanted them to reform policing, and he paid the price. His departure on Wednesday is Toronto’s great loss.
“Off the record, they *&%$ˆ this guy,” said one police observer familiar with the police board and police headquarters. “They stole the job from him; and he had no other choice but to leave,” the source said.
Sloly left the job he’s held for nine years. Speculation is he is pursuing a job abroad — Saudi Arabia is one destination mentioned. Sloly told reporters he has turned down several job offers in policing. His departure closes a chapter in Toronto policing that could be titled “What Might Have Been.”
When Sloly told a small group of youths last month that Toronto’s policing model is broken and needed total reform, he was repeating what he’s said repeatedly for years. Predictably, the police union objected strenuously to his recent statements — as they have before — and asked the police board to punish him.
Mayor John Tory, who sits on the board, refused, saying Sloly’s comments were not outrageous and had some resonance.
Indeed, Tory should know. He heard them from Sloly during the interview process to select a new chief last April.
The internal brass has heard similar words from Sloly at meeting tables, in casual conversation and in official correspondence.
He wanted to totally revamp police training, ramp up the use of technology, promote community policing and crime prevention over enforcement.
He’s been known to complain that only 8 per cent of policing costs go to prevention, even though it is cheaper and better than enforcement.
Sloly fought internally to end carding, authoring many of the clauses and approaches the police board approved — directions former chief Bill Blair refused to implement because of police union opposition.
When Mark Saunders, then a superintendent, tried to offer excuses for carding’s survival in 2013, it was Sloly who took over the file and insisted the controversial practice be stopped. Sloly’s approach found favour with the majority of civilians on the board.
It’s the approach the province would adopt later. He’s been proven right.
But his stance against racial profiling and carding are two reasons why the status-quo officers — led by the police union — seemingly wanted him knee-capped.
Sadly, Tory, the newly elected mayor, appeared to fall captive to that thinking. Before getting to know Sloly, the mayor aligned with the association, Blair and board member Andy Pringle to insert Saunders as chief.
In quick succession, Saunders had Sloly’s office cleared out, reassigned him, gave his duties to the retiring deputy Mike Federico and effectively buried any chance of real police change.
In his final interview for the chief’s job, Sloly outlined the way forward to the police board interviewers. Slides from his presentation, obtained by the Star shortly after the April interview, show:
He said as chief he would “cancel bricks-and-mortar capital projects and reconfigure IT” to save money. He promised to reduce the number of police officers, through attrition, and modernize the force.
Toronto’s 1960s style model of policing — focused on reactive enforcement — is “contributing to unsustainably rising police costs and dangerously decreasing public trust.”
While crime is down, the financial and social costs of policing are up, as is fear of crime, negative media and harsh public criticism, he said. “The current model of policing is financially and socially unsustainable.”
Sounds pretty much like what he told the students last month.
If the police board heard him, they certainly did not buy what he was selling.
They hired Saunders, who immediately started pulling the force back to the carding trough.
The reformers at police headquarters hang their heads today. Toronto residents have little idea what might have been. Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca