Toronto does not need to hire more police officers

As you contemplate the push by the Toronto Police Association (TPA) to have more police officers hired, remember that the issue is not the need for more officers, but featherbedding.

Last August, when the police association said the force needed more officers, the Toronto Police Services Board agreed to hire 80 new officers, even though in February it had agreed to shrink the force for the next three years by the number retiring or leaving.

Now officers and the association are vociferously arguing once again there are not enough officers on duty to respond to serious calls for service.

The force has plenty enough officers right now, although they have work arrangements that mean they aren’t always available when needed. For instance, Toronto has a rule (demanded by the association 40 years ago), that all police cars have two officers from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. Most calls for service only require the presence or assistance of one officer. Requiring that officers travel in pairs means the second officer is there only for show or to keep his buddy company, not to perform police work — hardly a good use of staff, or of public money.

A study was recently commissioned by the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition looking into two-officer cars. It shows that two-officer cars do not provide a level of safety greater than one-officer patrol cars; that most calls not do require two officers be present; that other police forces do not have the requirement that all cars must have two officers at specific times, but instead determine that two-officer cars are optional.

If we could free one officer from half these cars, there would be no shortage of staff to deal with calls for service.

And there’s a second issue that constrains existing staff — the shift schedule. The current Toronto shift schedule has officers working three shifts: 10-hour day time; 10-hour evening; and eight-hour night time — 28 hours in every 24-hour period.

The shift schedule requires the same number of officers to be on duty at every hour of every day and night no matter what the demand for service — the same number at 4 a.m. as at 7 p.m. The lack of demand for services may lead officers to perform tasks that are not in the public interest, on the principle that the devil makes work for idle hands.

As another study for the Accountability Coalition shows that most police forces other than Toronto have shift schedules permitting a variable number of officers on duty to respond to demand for service. That, indeed, is what happens in most companies that provide 24-hour service, such as hospitals. Providing as many staff at 3 a.m. as at 7 p.m. would be considered very bad management. But not in the Toronto Police Service.

Both provisions — two-officer cars and the shift schedule — are in the collective agreement between the TPA and the police board, as demanded by the TPA. If we wanted much better police service without hiring more officers, it would be a simple matter of dispensing with the two-officer-in-a-car provision in favour of only having two officers in a car when needed, and working out a shift schedule, such as in Calgary or Houston, which puts the number of officers on duty when they are needed.

But these are not changes the TPA will agree to. It prefers featherbedding, which is commonly defined as requiring an employer to hire unnecessary workers according to a union rule. That seems to be the preference of the TPA, and they will push instead for extra and unnecessary jobs.

If the TPA would agree to relaxing the two-officersin-a-car rule, and change the shift schedule regime, there would be adequate officers to respond to calls when needed.

The police service board must get serious about managing its workforce in a more efficient and cost effective manner. And the Toronto Police Association should indicate it is opposed to featherbedding and will agree to assign officers to work at times when they are needed.