Report to take aim at police culture

Transformational Task Force to release findings today

Last summer, a Toronto police board committee unveiled an ambitious set of recommendations aimed at overhauling an “outdated” policing model — their blueprint for modernizing the force, reducing costs and increasing floundering public trust.

Included in the interim report from the so-called Transformational Task Force were concrete solutions to well-defined, if dogged, problems: a hiring and promotions freeze to cut costs; outsourcing time-consuming tasks to civilians to free up officers for police work; mobile technology to get cops out of their cars and walking the streets.

This time around, the task force is tackling a far more nebulous problem, one with no easy fix: police culture.

Sources with knowledge of the final version of the report, to be released at the police board meeting today, say it contains a host of recommendations aimed at addressing long-standing issues of police culture. That will include a robust human resources strategy to ensure Canada’s largest municipal police service attracts and hires the right people.

Though the task force did not detail the police culture it seeks to change, last June’s interim report stated Toronto police culture has been “slow to change” and the pace must quicken.

Among the recommendations expected in Thursday’s final report is a means of measuring and public reporting on culture change.

“Culture change is the essential underpinning of our vision and the enabler of all our recommendations,” reads the interim report from the task force, comprising officers and citizens and cochaired by police Chief Mark Saunders and police board chair Andy Pringle.

Thursday’s report comes after months of town halls and consultations on the interim version, where recommendations were often met with positive reception.

That includes the suggested change to disband the Toronto Anti-Violence In- tervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit, a move that would in turn address a form of police culture that has caused rifts with the public. In some communities, TAVIS officers were notorious, in part for their high rate of carding, namely stopping and documenting people not suspected of committing a crime.

“There were unintended impacts on communities, especially among racialized youth who felt unfairly targeted,” the interim report stated.

The report claimed to have found $100 million in reductions and savings to the service’s ballooning $1-billion operating budget.

Salaries and benefits comprise 89 per cent of the budget.

Other changes outlined in the interim report:

Athree-year moratorium on hiring and promotions for officers and civilians. The number of uniformed officers would be reduced to 4,750 from 5,200 in three years.

Civilian employees would be reduced to 1,850 from 2,220. The move would save an estimated $60 million.

Transitioning officers from using mobile work stations in patrol vehicles to carrying smart devices, with improved technological capabilities.

Amalgamating some of Toronto’s 17 police divisions. The boundary lines of each division have not been redrawn in decades, despite shifting neighbourhoods and populations. Downtown divisions 54 and 55 would be the first to merge.

Overhauling paid duty, so that offduty officers are used in situations only where their “skills, authorities and training” are necessary.

Using alternative or shared service delivery of court services and parking enforcement, including using more civilians.

Investing in greater partnerships with the community, including the creation of an “innovation hub” to allow for ongoing professional improvement.

The report also claims to have identified up to $72 million worth of land and buildings to be returned to the city. The task force can anticipate some push-back from the Toronto Police Association, which recently launched a “Stop the Toronto Police cuts” social media campaign.

The union alleges a hiring freeze will compromise public safety, a claim Saunders recently disputed in an interview with the Star.

The report will be presented to the board Thursday, but deferred for full discussion until February’s meeting.