Issues
A Full letter with recommendations flowing from the two reports on the G20.
September 17 2012
Description:
Full letter with recommendations flowing from the two reports on the G20.
September 17, 2012.
To: Mayor Rob Ford and members, Toronto City Council,
and
Premier Dalton McGuinty and cabinet members,
and
Tim Hudak, leader of the Conservative Party of Ontario,
and
Andrea Horwath, leader of the New Democractic Party of Ontario.
The two major reports issued on how Toronto police officers and those under the control of Toronto police acted during the G20 meetings two years ago paint a bleak and disturbing picture of the Toronto police force and how it is managed. The report of Gerry McNeilly of the Office of the Independent Police Review Director focuses on the kinds of things police officers and their supervisiors did and didn't do. The report by former judge John Morden focuses on the Toronto Police Services Board and how it has so misinterpreted its role to avoid discussing operational matters that it played no governance role in the planning or operation of the G20 activities of the police service.
It is a time for positive change that provides better policing for the city. There are three issues which should be addressed: minimizing the role of a destructive police culture; creating stronger police management; and putting in place good governance of policing.
Police culture
Police culture played a very significant role in how events unfolded at the G20. Whenever such a large number of officers are present, the dominant police culture of police solidarity, violence, little respect for civilians, little regard for the niceties of the law, takes over and infects the whole operation. All these aspects of police culture were very plainly on display during the G20.
Those responsible for civilian oversight and police managers did nothing to prevent this from occurring. There were many examples of how destructive the police culture was. Many officers refused to display their mandatory identification. Many officers claim they never saw any of the wrong-doing their fellow officers were committing. Many officers made arrests that were not authorized by law. Many officers searched civilians illegally. Some officers used violence against civilians.
The ugly aspects of police culture have been documented quite clearly, showing the ineffectiveness of those responsible for civilian oversight and police management.
It was not as though these actions were an aberration. What the police did during the G20 was simply following their normal modus operandi, but this time it was written very large. Rather than just affecting the dispossessed at the bottom end of the social structure, police actions during the G20 impacted on middle class people who don't expect these kinds of things to happen.
Minimizing this police culture in the future will not be easy, but it can and should be done. We think two changes must be made.
1. Instead of hiring officers with general skills in entry level positions and having them work their way up the ranks, the police service must become like most other organizations in society: it should hire individuals to perform specific roles and jobs. Police culture gets reinforced in every new recruit who is currently hired (most are hired when they are in their early 20s or younger) and recruits know the only way to get ahead is to please managers who are already deep into the police culture. In this arrangement, there is little chance for anything but a police culture to flourish, since if a young officer is unhappy with the way he or she is being treated, it is easier to leave than to try to make change.
Hiring particular individuals to fill roles in the police because of the skills they have will mean that these individuals can bring their own set of beliefs picked up in other organizations to the job and the police force. Hiring those expert in youth work to deal with youth and steer them away from the criminal justice system will not only improve the ability of the police to deliver that service, it will also begin to counter the dominance of police culture. That's true for generally all of the roles the police exercise including investigations, targeting crime, community policing, domestic issues, drugs. Another good reason for hiring for specific jobs is to help ensure individuals with disabilities who would otherwise not be deemed qualified to apply, are considered within the police service. Individuals hired in this manner for specific jobs will, of course, require training in specific police matters just as other employees in other organizations require specific training.
Hiring for specific positions is a good start in countering police culture, improving police performance, and creating more diversity within the service.
But hiring these outsiders will require a big change in the way training is now delivered to new recruits. Currently training is done at the Ontario Police College, located in a very small community in southern Ontario. New recruits are required to live there over a three month period, and this is where police culture is drilled into new recruits: they are such a `special' group of individuals that they cant be trained at a normal school, but must have one of their own. Much of the training is learning how to fit in and obey orders; the experience tells them they are different than the rest of society.
Few mature adults with experience working in other organizations would be willing to accept this arrangement to take work in a police force. They would have no problem with getting trained, but would ask that it be in a regular school, during regular school hours, without requiring a candidate to abandon family and live in residence. That's the change that should be made to police training: make it part of an established college or university so recruits are part of a mainstream educational environment. That too will help to minimize the police culture. Further, to enhance training, recruits should be placed in community agencies for a reasonable period of time.
2. Better police management
Currently, police managers are appointed from below or from another police force. Those who become managers are always police officers and imbued with the dominant police culture, and it is clear that when new managers are appointed they do not become successful by seeing their job as differing from the existing managers who appoint them. It is much more likely that those who move up the ranks do so because they fit in so well.
Undoubtedly some are good at managing others, but experience seems to indicate that this is not often the case. All the stories one hears about police organizations indicate that mid-level managers are not good at what they do. They are not innovative; they do not look for better ways of doing work; they rarely are consultative. They manage by the rule book, and they set inappropriate standards of success, such as the number of tickets written or the number of arrests made.
Its clear that good managers in any line of work are hard to find. Most successful organizations spend much energy and money looking for good managers, particularly those who seem successful elsewhere. Police services should do the same. They should look to other organizations such as banks, manufacturers, retailers, social services to find managers, then train them for the specific needs in policing.
This is rarely done by the police. In Toronto there is only one senior employee who was hired in spite of having no police experience - the chief administrative officer - who was hired because he knew how to manage people keeping the finances. It needs to be done much more often. Police should be required to advertise inside and outside the force for mid-level and senior managers. Interview panels should include those outside the police force who have experience with managers. Only when there is a raft of good managers in the police force can one expect rank and file officers to feel enough loyalty to the organization to do what needs to be done, in an accountable fashion. And only when good managers are in place can the talent and innovative capacity of rank and file officers be harnessed to ensure better delivery of police services.
Another aspect of management is holding managers responsible for outcomes. This must be done in respect to what police did during the G20. Those who were in positions of leadership must be held accountable, and disciplined, or in some cases, dismissed.
Currently not enough information has been made available to show exactly who was in control of what. Where that information is available, action must be taken against those managers. Where it is not, further investigation is required and the managers must be required o co-operate or to leave the force. If they are not disciplined or dismissed for the mayhem caused by officers under their control, it would seem there would never be grounds for discipline or dismissal, and that is not reasonable.
In respect to the chief of police, Bill Blair, the only reasonable course of action seems to be to dismiss him for cause. He bears the brunt of responsibility for what occurred; the managers working under him either acted inappropriately or were not provided with reasonable direction by him. He showed he was unable to be a reasonable manager in the circumstances.
The Morden Review also concluded that the chief did not provide to the Board enough information to make reasonable decisions about the planning for the G20. "What is clear from the record is that the Chief's non-disclosure of certain information to the Board with respect to the G20 Summit led to confusion, or a complete lack of understanding, among Board members on a number of important policing matters." (p. 18) This conclusion indicates a short-coming in the chief fulfilling his responsibilities to the Board.
A further way of looking at this is: if the chief is not dismissed for the mayhem the officers under his control did, what would a cause for dismissal be? Chief Blair should be dismissed for cause.
3. Stronger police governance
The Toronto Police Services Board is the primary means of civilian oversight of police activities. As the Morden Review makes clear, the Board has been ineffective in providing oversight not only during the G20 but also in the general way it operates. The Review notes, "The Board has limited its consultative mandate and viewed it as improper to ask questions about, comment on, and make recommendations concerning operational matters. The Boards approach in this regard has been wrong. " (p. 6)
Much of the Review is filled with examples of how the Board refused to provide any oversight of any of the matters regarding the G20 agreements, planning, command structures, training, laws, operations, of prisoners. The Review notes that Chair Mukherjee resisted or at times criticized Board members who asked questions. (p. 230) Mr. Mukherjee is the only member of the Board who was on the Board during the G20.
Like the actions of the police officers themselves, this lack of effective oversight by the Board is the way things usually work on a month by month basis. The Board does not provide effective oversight, nor does it provide civilian accountability.
What should be done?
First, the current chair must be removed, and the remaining Board members must commit to take up the duties outlined in the Police Services Act, as proposed by the Morden Review, to provide direction on operational matters and operational policies, or resign and be replaced.
Second, the Board must be expanded. Police boards in Ontario are generally too small. Size is limited by the Police Services Act. Most boards consist of just three members, some five, and Toronto is allowed seven members. These numbers should be substantially increased if we want to have strong and intelligent boards with a range of experience. We suggest the basic board be seven members, and that for Toronto and other municipalities with more than 100,000 residents, boards should be between 11 and 15 members.
A larger Board will be able to incorporate a wider range of talents and experiences, much like a jury has a range of talents and experiences. There should be no special focus on lawyers or other professionals, but a mix of skills and experiences.
Police Board members should be well trained in policing issues (currently far too few police board members have much knowledge about how policing works or the challenges it offers) and about effective governance. Colleges and criminology schools should be encouraged to offer courses tailored to police board members, and Boards should budget to send members to such courses. Regarding police, the courses might include police culture; racial profiling and other equity issues; the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; conflict resolution and de-escalation; disciplining police and complaint mechanisms. Regarding governance the courses should include; the Police Services Act; managing the managers and managing the rank and file; a collective agreement with police, i.e. basic pay, shift schedules and pay, duty pay, retention pay, other perks; encouraging public input and debate.
In summary, the Toronto City Council and the Provincial government to take the following actions:
1. The Chair of the Board must be dismissed, and the remaining members of the current Board (none of whom served during the G20) must commit to exercise their duties as proposed by Mr. Morden, or resign. Further, the Board must be expanded to at least fifteen members, and they should all receive appropriate training for their role as governors of the police.
2. Police culture
Actions must be taken to minimize the impact of police culture in the future. This can be done in a number of ways:
a) Instead of hiring officers with general skills in entry level positions and having them work their way up the ranks, the police service must become like most other organizations in society: it should hire individuals to perform specific roles and jobs. Hiring particular individuals to fill roles in the police because of the skills they have will mean that these individuals can bring their own set of beliefs picked up in other organizations to the job and the police force.
b) Training for recruits should occur at an established college or university (and include placements in the community) so recruits are part of a mainstream educational environment rather than at the Ontario Police College, located in a very small community in southern Ontario.
c) The police service should act like other big organizations and look outside in manufacturing, banking, retailing, social services and community organizations to find good managers to recruit rather than only looking inside the service, then train them for the specific needs in policing.
3. Police managers
Police Chief Blair should be dismissed with cause, and other senior managers should be disciplined and where appropriate, dismissed. Mr. Morden makes it clear that Chief Blair hindered the Board in providing effective oversight during the G20, and he did not carry out his duty to ensure the police force upheld the law. Regarding other senior managers, currently not enough information has been made available to show exactly who was in control of what. When that information is available, action must be taken against those managers.
We the undersigned urge Toronto City Council and the Provincial Government to ensure these recommendations are put into place.
Name Affiliation (if any) email
Robin Barker robindbarker@gmail.com
Sophie Bart sophie.bart@gmail.com
Kathleen Chung katechung17@gmail.com
Paul Copeland lawyer paulcope9@yahoo.com
Natalia Crowe natalia.crowe@gmail.com
Michael Giglio
Richard Hudler galleylou@hotmail.com
Mark Hunder markhunder@gmail.com
Brian Iler lawyer biler@ilercampbell.com
Charles Klassen turnoverarocktoday@yahoo.ca
Else Knudsen else.knudsen@utoronto.ca
Brian Konick social worker brian.konik@gmail.com
Gina Konjarski konjaskig@yahoo.ca
Marco LaMacchia marco.lamacchia@hotmail.com
John Liss liss_john47@yahoo.com
Tyler MacDonald lawyer macdonald@criminaltriallawyers.ca
Michael Mandel Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School mmandel@osgoode.yorku.ca
Dr. Vikram Mulligan v_mulligan@hotmail.com
Johanna Macdonald lawyer macdonaj@lao.on.ca
Marian Macgregor director of CLASP mmacgregor@osgoode.yorku.ca
Clarice Ondrack clarice@primus.ca
Selwyn Pieters lawyer Selwyn@selwynpieters.com
Tom Ross tom-ross@excite.com
Reid Rusonik lawyer Rusonik@criminaltriallawyers.ca
Veronica Salvatierra la.locacita@gmail.com
John Sewell former mayor of Toronto john@johnsewell.ca
Christine Sinclair CSinclair_clasp@osgoode.yorku.ca
Harvey Simmons professor emeritus, York U Hsimmons@yorku.ca
Stan Taylor 4stantaylor@rogers.com
Mariana Valverde Centre for Criminology, U of T m.valverde@utoronto.ca
Anna Willats awillats@sympatico.ca
Christopher Williams william2@alumni.yorku.ca
September 17, 2012.
Resource Issue(s):
·General
