James: Mark Saunders is a straight talker who refuses to pander,
In so many ways, Mark Saunders has exceeded expectations as Toronto police chief — and the city’s first Black chief at that.
To those who thought he’d be a “sellout” who’d countenance carding and other outrageous police practices in the name of crime fighting, he has thrown a curve.
He has frustrated those who considered him a police lackey, eager to play footsie with the police association and pander to its president, Mike McCormack.
He has surprised his civilian masters on the police services board by his willingness to pursue the “modernization” of the force by actively seeking new ways to dispatch officers and cover the city — without the perennial bloating of the force.
That said, to the public, Chief Saunders is surely an enigma. Sure-footed but not imposing. Conversant but not eloquent. A pleasing personality lacking that potent mix of charisma and arrogance ever present in the alpha male that populate the position of top cop.
Cordial is one way to describe Saunders’s first four years — despite unprecedented number of murders, two mass attacks on Toronto streets and rising gun play. On most issues he has not been out too far or in too deep — but that should have been expected. If the police services board wanted change and reform and a shakeup of the police apparatus, Peter Sloly would have been the choice.
In the past 40 years, only one other Toronto police chief has had his contract renewed past one term. The police services board has announced an extension for Saunders. Sort of. He’ll get an extra year, not a second five-year term. Does he even deserve that?
Selected chief in April 2015, Saunders launched a modernization task force — an attempt to show he was not just some old school cop tied to the old
ways. Clearly, that was not what the police union had anticipated. The guy who McCormack actively lobbied to get the job, was not delivering what the union head wanted — opening of the vault to hire hundreds more officers. Instead, Saunders implemented strategies to redeploy officers, moving cops to street duty and, before long, the number of cops dropped. Blindsided, McCormack cut ties. He even called a no-confidence vote in Saunders. Half the cops bothered to vote and 86 per cent voted non-confidence. The McCormack-Saunders battle seemed obligatory, almost contrived.
On carding, a treasured practice of random street checks that had grown so toxic and racist that it had to be scrapped, the union — and even Mayor John Tory — miscalculated. The public revolted against the idea of stopping targeted groups on the street, without suspicion of a crime. Sloly had declared his opposition to carding. Saunders was expected to continue it. But now, faced with a backlash that threatened the mayor, instead of presenting credible arguments to buttress the practice, Saunders could not or would not — except for weak apologia that did nothing to stall its demise.
Ironically, Saunders has raised most eyebrows when he has been at his strongest — a clear, non-alarmist voice refusing to pander to fears about gun violence at precisely the time the city wants to panic and hire cops and round up the young Black men in the hood and knock heads, if need be.
Which chief has been more forthcoming in laying out the reality of gun play in the city — there will be hundreds more shootings, the chief said last week.
Say what? Aren’t you supposed to tell us that you got this covered and your officers are about to crush the thugs and return Hogtown to peace and order?
Who says, “To think we can arrest our way out of this is a falsehood.” Saunders said: “If people think that it’s a matter of just arresting and all is well, that’s a far cry from the truth, a far cry from the right solution in today’s environment. You need to have the resources necessary, at the front end and the back end, and our enforcement piece in the middle in order to get this right.”
That’s way too much wisdom, coming from a police chief.
A more astutely deceptive operator would not have said that. He would prevaricate, dissemble and say all kinds of inanities to fool the public into believing that police on the street can actually stop the street gangs proliferating.
Still, by the time he leaves in 2021, Saunders will likely be judged by what happens with gunplay over the next year, primarily next summer. If this summer’s eruption is a naturally occurring blip that will fall away — just like last year’s historic number of gun deaths has fallen back to the norm — he’ll be remembered as Steady Saundy. If the thugs have indeed taken over the asylum, there will be no shortage of second-guessers.
The politicians, as always, are covering their bases. They have just given Saunders millions of dollars to hire more cops — the easiest non-solution to the complicated and entrenched problem of street crime.
Meanwhile, the police services board — in granting Saunders a partial extension only — is hedging its bet.