Undercover police can create danger
Standing outside the University Avenue courthouse on Sunday afternoon, Margaret Northrup, widow of Toronto Police Service Const. Jeffrey Northrup, said, “From day one, all I’ve wanted was accountability.”
It may be the case that her request will be fulfilled, thankfully not by blaming an innocent man for her late husband’s tragic death, but through an independent review of Toronto Police Service’s plainclothes policy.
Policing can be a dangerous job. We are often reminded that “while everyone else runs away from danger, police run towards it.” And the danger of policing has been pronounced in Canada’s recent history, with 10 police officers killed in the line of duty since September 2022.
The trial of Umar Zameer was another reminder of these dangers. Const. Northrup was asked to run toward danger — to investigate a stabbing incident that occurred near city hall on the evening of July 1, 2021. Northrup and his partner, Sgt. Lisa Forbes, both dressed in street clothes rather than their TPS uniforms, entered the city hall parking garage just after midnight.
They approached a BMW, driven by Zameer, yelling and banging on the vehicle, searching for their suspect. Zameer testified that he believed the two plain-clothes officers were trying to attack him, his eightmonths pregnant wife and their toddler son. He panicked, drove away to escape the perceived attack and in doing so ran over and killed Northrup.
The jury accepted Zameer’s account and rejected the account given by Forbes and two other TPS officers that Zameer intentionally targeted Northrup.
Parking garages are dangerous. We pay close attention in them.
Even more so, confronting a presumed-to-be-armed suspect is a dangerous police task. We give police officers equipment and a uniform to perform this task. Even in uniform, and while wearing a thick, heavy, and well-marked bulletproof vest, officers are vulnerable to edged weapon attacks.
Northrup and Forbes had none of the protections this equipment affords, not the ceramic plates in a vest that might deflect a knife attack, nor the recognizable identifying features of police uniform. Sending them in pursuit of a knifewielding suspect through busy city streets drastically increased the danger associated with the task.
Criminologists have a term for police decisions that increase risk to officers and the public — “statecreated danger.” State-created danger is usually borne by citizens. However, in this case, a veteran officer was the victim of a dangerous tactical decision.
The Toronto Police Uniform Code states: “The Toronto Police Service Uniform is readily recognized and respected within the community we serve … (Uniform) standards have been developed to ensure compliance with specific legislation and for maximizing safety.”
Safety includes the safety of officers and the individuals these officers serve. Citizens should be able to presume they are safe when they are approached by an officer in uniform. Without the uniform, Zameer felt unsafe and Northrup was put in an unsafe position.
The code also states: “With the permission of the Chief of Police, specialized units … may deviate from the prescribed uniform due to the function being performed.”
Those functions are likely to be revisited and rethought through the independent review. The most serious question the independent review will likely ask is “when the chief gives permission to wear plain clothes, is the officer still capable of fulfilling the full range of duties expected of them?” and if not, then, “should there be tighter limits on plain clothes patrols?”
Alongside her call for accountability, Margaret Northrup stated she was disappointed in the trial’s outcome. These sentiments were echoed by police Chief Myron Demkiw. Such statements can be excused from a grieving widow, less so the chief.
Nevertheless, with 24-hours to reconsider, Demkiw took the first step in giving Margaret Northrup and the city the accountability it is owed — not by punishing an innocent man, but by reviewing how TPS policy may have created the danger that led to this tragedy.