TORONTO — Mayor John Tory is calling for Toronto police officers to be used more effectively to suppress violence in the city, after the Toronto Police Services Board voted in favour of creating a new task force to determine how to best deploy resources.
“We are presently using police officers – expensive highly trained, very skilled police officers – doing things like sitting two in a car and watching to see if people turn left,” Tory said, adding he expects results from the task force after a spike in recent violent crime in the city.
“We can use technology to watch for people turning left and – in fact – then use those police officers to be out in the community trying to crack down in various ways and to liaise with the communities and stop these violent acts.”
READ MORE: Toronto Police Service Board approves $27 million budget increase
Tory said he would like to see healthcare resources used to assist in some of the mental illness calls police officers often respond to in the city.
“The treatment of people with mental health is still a scandal in this country and it needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed as part of the healthcare system,” he said, adding it’s a “serious problem” police receive thousands of mental health calls every month.
“We somehow pretend that mental health conditions are not the same as heart conditions or liver conditions or bad circulations. It’s a healthcare problem.”
The task force will be jointly chaired by Toronto Police Services Board Chair Andy Pringle and Chief Mark Saunders and will include a maximum of 12 people from service members and external experts.
After careful review of the KPMG report, Pringle said Thursday the task force will now consider its findings and will also look into other suggestions put forward by the public.
The report makes a series of short-term and long-term suggestions that would allow the Toronto Police Service to streamline its operations.
READ MORE: Proposed cuts could bring ‘profound changes’ to Toronto police operations
Short-term recommendations include reductions to current operation budgets – like reducing premium pay or overtime – and temporary deferrals of “non-essential promotions.”
Mid-term suggestions consider possibly outsourcing parking enforcement models and court security services.
Long-term recommendations suggest outsourcing for HR, IT and finance positions and also recommend a shift in staffing for the Toronto Police College from uniformed to civilian officers.
In November, the board approved a $1 billion 2016 budget, which is an increase of 2.76 per cent, or $27 million, over the previous year.
Pringle said although he cannot predict the outcome, he was open to any adjustments that could help reduce Toronto police’s operating costs “get it down sufficiently.”
Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack said he found inaccuracies in the report, after it was released publicly last week.
Pringle said the report was meant to be a high level study, which included estimates of numbers.
During their presentation KPMG touted Toronto police and said the organization was “not broken.”
The task force will report back to the police board in June and December of 2016 with its findings.
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