Making Toronto safer starts with fixing the TPSB
Notes for Toronto's new mayor on how to improve Toronto's police protection
Olivia Chow has a police problem. Toronto’s new mayor took office earlier this month, promising to respond to the “call for change” she heard on the hustings and pledging to address the priorities she campaigned on: making housing more affordable, addressing Toronto’s daunting fiscal crisis, and making the city feel like a safer place to live.
How will she make the people of Toronto feel safer? By making housing more affordable, improving social services for people in mental health crisis, reducing the wait times for people calling 911, and creating more after school programs. Not once in her inaugural mayoral address did Mayor Olivia Chow mention the word “police.”
That’s a problem.
“Equally urgent people need to feel safe in their homes, on transit and throughout our city. Recent events have shaken our sense of security. And even though our city continues to rank among the safest in this country, that’s cold comfort. Clearly we need to do much, much more.
“As a start, we can improve our responses to emergencies, build and expand on our success of programs like the Toronto Community Crisis Service, so that everyone can access a caring and supportive response when they’re in a crisis. We can improve 911 wait times and build more after school programs and of course people say that we can come together and watch out for each other.”
– Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, on taking office July 12, 2023
Last week, John Reid – the president of Toronto’s police union – took to Twitter then the airwaves on NEWSTALK1010 to call out Mayor Chow’s “contempt” for the police service. He was, in part, upset by the lack of public commiseration from the mayor about the shooting death of a police service dog. The police union is not happy with the new mayor’s lack of public support for its members.
That’s a problem.
In contrast, erstwhile mayor John Tory would have publicly condemned each incident with a flaccid public statement damning violence against our police (and their service animals) as “regrettable,” “extremely troubling,” or if he was particularly galled even “unacceptable.” None of his condemnations would make much difference, but the police would at least feel loved.
Right now, the stage is set for a return to past eras of Toronto history marked by distrust, dislike and even outright political warfare between the city’s police service and its political leadership.
That’s a problem.
If Mayor Chow is going to make progress on public safety during her tenure, she cannot do it while waging war with the city’s police service. Like it or not, police play an important role in public safety. They cannot be ignored. Chow must find a way to work with Toronto’s police chief, the police service he leads. Even more, she must find a way to make them better at their jobs.
Making Toronto safer is not going to be easy. It will require a complex solution. That complexity will include the police, even if policing is not a topic Mayor Chow or her political followers and allies are comfortable with.
Chow’s own history with Toronto Police is adversarial. As a city councillor in 2000, she resigned from the Toronto Police Services Board after hostilities between her and then police union president Craig Brommell took a nasty public turn. She was egregiously anti-police. And the police were egregiously anti-civilian oversight. So much so, that Toronto’s police union intimidated members of council and the police services board. Even worse, the union was raising funds by bullying citizens into buying “get out of tickets free” stickers to put on their cars. Want to support the police? Buy a sticker to put on your car – so officers will know you supported us. No sticker, well, then cops will know you hate them. Your choice.
Those were dark, ugly times. We do not want to return to them.
Toronto’s current police union president seems like a reasonable and professional leader. By all accounts, TPS Chief Myron Demkiw is also a smart, respected leader. Ignoring them is not the answer. Neither is bending over for anything the police service demands. It didn’t work for John Tory and it won’t work for Olivia Chow.
There is one approach that could would significantly improve public safety in Toronto by vastly improving the work Toronto’s Police Service does in our communities. It’s an approach that will vastly improve the professionalism of our police service and make it easier for members of the TPS to walk tall and feel even prouder of the work they do.
It’s a path forward Mayor Chow should be comfortable with. Even better, it’s something she can do immediately. As an added bonus, it will give Chow some political breathing room and distance from the problem.
Toronto’s police service is not managed by the mayor. It is governed by a quasi arms-length oversight body called the Toronto Police Services Board. Under Mayor John Tory, the TPSB lost its way and became an irrelevant collection of sock puppets. Mayor Olivia Chow could give it purpose once more.
A reconstituted police board would hold police leadership accountable to the people of Toronto and demand – and enable – the police service to be and to do better.
Mayor Chow should reform the Toronto Police Services Board
The Toronto Police Services Board is the civilian oversight body that exists to govern the Toronto Police Service. The TPS is not a “department” of the city government. It does not report to the mayor or council. The police service is independent, reporting only to the TPSB. In theory, this autonomy ensures the police service does not become the armed enforcement branch of any political leader. That’s a good thing.
It’s a good theory.
In practice, that theory falls flat every day. The TPSB does not govern the police service, nor does it provide any effective oversight. And the chiefs of police in Toronto have proven, time and again, they fall far short of effective leadership. Both failings can be fixed. The first, better governance, can start right now with a simple decision by the mayor. Fixing the leadership vacuum inside the TPS is more complex and will require more time. More on that prescription in a future column.
But, today, Mayor Olivia Chow can kickstart the process of fixing the TPSB with a simple memo. No strong mayor powers are even required!
A governance board of hand-picked sock puppets that doesn’t govern
The TPSB is supposed to represent the interests of our community. It does not. It’s been a wet blanket since John Tory was elected mayor.
Under Mayor Rob Ford, the TPSB held the Chief and TPS accountable. The mayor appointed to the TPSB three active members of council who held the chief’s feet to the fire as best they could. They fought hard to keep the ballooning police budget under control. The mayor also supported an outspoken citizen Chair of the TPSB who vocally challenged the police service to be better.
Mayor John Tory’s appointees, who are still in place, are all but invisible. This wasn’t helped by the fact Tory sat himself on the board – effectively gagging the other city appointees. Both chairs appointed by Tory were also “hear no evil, speak no evil” invisible placeholders. Who is going to speak out when the mayor remains silent?
I defy most Torontonians to even name the TPSB Board Chair – a position that should be reasonably high profile as the person who is responsible to hold Toronto’s police service to account on behalf of the almost three million residents.
The TPSB consists of seven members: three appointed by the province and four appointed by the city. The city’s four TPSB appointees include: the mayor by right of office (or a councillor she designates to represent her), two other members of council and one citizen appointee. Mayor Chow can choose all four city appointees directly and therefore controls the TPSB. Her appointees represent a majority on the board, and can choose a chairperson of her preference and carry any vote as she desires.
The TPSB needs to take a more active role in representing the citizens of Toronto. The board exists to govern and oversee the Toronto Police Service. They cannot interfere in policing operations, but they can shape the mission, vision, leadership, policies and budget of the service. During the Tory administration, the TPSB allowed the chief of police to decide what was an “operational” matter – ceding their legislative and democratic responsibility. That was not normal practice in the past. Past boards actively pushed back on chiefs that sought to expand their powers.
Mayor Chow needs to reconstitute the TPSB membership. She needs to give the board its teeth back. Not to belittle, battle or beggar the police service. But, to hold the chief and the TPS to account and to demand our police service be better at the critical service it provides.
Here’s how Chow can immediately improve the TPSB:
Don’t sit on the board. Governing the largest municipal police service in Canada takes a lot of focus and a lot of time. It requires more time and attention than any hard-working mayor can give. Chow can influence every decision made by the TPSB through the four appointees she selects. Give them her guidance and let them focus on the work. She does not need to be there personally. In fact, her presence will serve to neuter her appointees and make the situation worse: witness the TPSB during John Tory’s mayoralty.
Appoint three active councillors to the board. Include at least one detail-oriented fiscal hawk. The police are horrible managers and even worse at finance. They need onerous oversight. Do not overload these councillors with other appointments – councillors are not as busy as the mayor, but they already have 30 hours of work to squeeze into each 24 hour day. Don’t make it harder by giving them other high-workload appointments, no matter how much they want them. Instead, give them a mandate to master the TPSB files and make real change. Then, hold them accountable to succeed.
Pick a citizen and make her/him the Chair of the Board. The chair of the TPSB is elected annually by the other members of the board – four of whom are appointed by the mayor, so the Chow can basically choose the chair. The position is too much work for a councillor, so she should choose a citizen for the role. The job comes with a salary of almost $100,000 plus other perks, so it’s reasonable to expect the incumbent to do a good job and focus primarily on the role. This should not be a “hobby” position or a patronage plum, as it was under Tory. Past chairs, such as Alok Mukherjee and Susan Ng made something of the role though they were arguably anti-police at times and so weren’t as effective as they might have been.
A good choice for chair of the TPSB would be someone who has worked with police in the past, though not as a police officer, understands their ethos and can earn their respect – but who is ready and able to hold them accountable, to be a vocal, aggressive critic when that’s required. Not someone infatuated with police. Not someone who hates the police. The chair should be an effective, skilled communicator who will stand up for the public interest in the face of a service that likes to get its own way. The police chief and the union love to seduce board members as allies, with little perks and privileges, so the chair must see this coming and keep the board honest. TPSB should be a board of overseers – not cheerleaders.
Challenge the TPSB to become a results-focused governance board that will lead the police service into the 21st Century and make it a more efficient, effective and community-focused organization that truly serves and protects the people of Toronto. Ontario’s Police Services Act does a pitiful job of empowering police services boards to do good work. Regardless, there are ways to work through the legislation to get more done. A good board will get creative and find those ways.
Get out of the way. Once Mayor Chow has reconstituted the board and given it a fresh, active, responsible mandate – she should get out of its way and let it do the job. She should check in regularly to ensure the board is making progress and she should hold it accountable if it fails to do so. There are no shortage of smart, devoted and energetic people – councillors and citizens alike – who would love a chance to serve their community through this board. If any incumbent is failing to perform – replace them and move on.
There are political advantages to this approach too
Reconstituting the TPSB is something Mayor Chow can do right now, by signing off a memo. She does not need to spend political capital at council. It will show she’s taking policing seriously by taking action – as much action as she can take directly.
It will also distance her from the immediate challenges and criticisms that come with the job – “I’ve appointed new board members with a new vision. Now, let’s give them some time to produce results.” With distance, comes some insulation. Those who want the police de-funded can take up their cause with the new TPSB. Those who want the police strength doubled can do likewise. Meantime, Mayor Chow can focus on being the mayor and getting done all the things she talked about in her inaugural address.
And a bonus for everyone: It’s the right thing to do.
Do you agree?