In this issue:
1. Crisis in Canada’s Policing, a new book
2. Most calls for service are non-violent
3. Better recruitment policies
Toronto Police Accountability Bulletin No. 133, September 30, 2021.
This Bulletin is published by the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition (TPAC), a group of individuals and organizations in Toronto interested in police policies and procedures, and in making police more accountable to the community they are committed to serving. Our website is http://www.tpac.ca
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In this issue:
1. Crisis in Canada’s Policing, a new book
2. Most calls for service are non-violent
3. Better recruitment policies
4. Subscribe to the Bulletin
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1. Crisis in Canada’s Policing, a new book
Crisis in Canada’s Policing, the new book by John Sewell with Chris Williams, describes the state of large Canadian police forces after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. The many government reports on police over the last three decades are referenced, noting that few of their recommendations have been adopted.
Chapter 1, `Why Is It so difficult to change policing’, discusses police culture, officer solidarity in presenting evidence, excessive use of force, racism and sexism, lax reporting requirements, poor relationships with social organizations, ineffective discipline, the power of police associations, weak management and governance, and ineffective oversight. Examples are given from large police forces across Canada.
Chapter 2, `What do police do?’, addresses issues of crime data (comparing crime in large cities across the country), how police officers spend their time, measures of police efficiency including clearance rates, response time, police/population, and value for money. It looks at the usefulness (or not) of police patrol, police in crime prevention, suspect identification, pre-charge screening, police response to those in mental crisis, and the limited role police play in safety and security. Sections are included on private policing, as well as police, weapons and armour.
Chapter 3, `Systemic discrimination: police and race’, outlines the long history of racial discrimination by police, with substantial information on the discouraging history of carding and street stops in large Canadian cities, and discrimination again Indigenous persons for many decades, including incarceration rates, who gets shot by police in Canada, and racism within police forces.
Chapter 4, `Systemic discrimination: police and women’, reviews the conclusions of the Unfounded series by the Globe and Mail about police not taking seriously claims of sexual assault by women, looks at the Murdered and Missing Women report, intimate partner violence among police officers, sexual discrimination within police forces with particular attention to the RCMP, and sexual discrimination in training and promotion.
Chapter 5, `Recruitment, training and promotion’, begins by rejecting the practice of hiring general recruits, instead suggesting hiring by job description as all other large organizations do. It deals with similar methods of recruit training across the country, its impacts and limitations, and the need for further training for specific tasks. It reviews promotion practices within forces, the very limited police-controlled discipline practices, and suspension with pay (except in Alberta.)
Chapter 6, `What is to be done’, begins by discussing ideas of abolishing or de-establishing police organizations, referring to several examples of this being attempted in USA. It includes comments on demonizing those arrested, noting that studies show that most of those who are incarcerated were victims before they were arrested, and that extraordinary amounts of social sending ($7 billion a year in Edmonton) are failing to address and resolve the clear social problems which exist and need to be rethought with much more emphasis on affordable housing and income support. Ideas of defunding or de-tasking police have been considered and implemented in some jurisdictions, removing police from mental crisis, homelessness, overdose and youth calls, and thoughts are given to removing police from traffic calls, all of which will have a significant positive impact on racial discrimination by police.
Significant changes are needed to disrupt and dismantle the way policing is now delivered: collect race-based data; implement pre-charge screening; find new ways to hire staff and hire managers; make discipline procedures more independent and transparent; de-weaponize the rank and file; substantially change who sits on police boards.
The book is available at Chapters/Indigo and other bookstores. It can be ordered online at www.lorimer.ca ; phone orders at 1 800 565 1975.
2. Most calls for service are non-violent
A police report before the Toronto Police Services Board on September 27 states that in the first four months of this year, Toronto police responded to 300,000 calls. Of those, 10,000 were `calls involving violence’. The overwhelming number of calls, 97 per cent, did not involve violence. But each officer who attended those non-violent calls has a gun, a conducted energy weapon, a pair of handcuffs, a baton, body armour and a body camera.
The message police deliver with this equipment is clear: this is a dangerous city, you should be afraid, you should be armed – messages which are all false and inflammatory. There is no way that police can expect to have a reasonable relationship with people in this city when that is the way police perceive Toronto. The police are stating that in every neighbourhood there is someone armed and dangerous – but in fact, that person is a police officer.
An effective response to these 97 per cent of calls is an officer with a cell phone and a paper and pen.
The police service should begin de-escalating its response by getting rid of this expensive hardware for most of the calls most of the time. Only a limited number of officers need this equipment.
Chief James Ramer responded to this suggestion by TPAC that police work is unpredictable and the situations police attend are dynamic, hence the need for officers being heavily armed. So it is clear we can’t expect change to happen any time soon. But Chief Ramer did note that strip searches in 2021 stand at less than 600 this year, compared to more than 7000 at this time last year – which shows that positive change is possible once the service and the Board agree it should occur.
3. Better recruitment policies
A report to the September 27 Board meeting recommends various tweaks to the recruitment and promotion policy – a clear skill set about engaging racialized and marginalized communities; more diversity; more education – and in the case of promotions, attention to the disciplinary history of the candidate.
While these represent positive steps, the calls for real change in policing demand bolder action. TPAC proposed the Board would be wiser to take a new approach to both hiring recruits and considering promotions.
The recruit system, where every new employee (save for former police officers) starts at the bottom, is a waste of talent and money. It also denies the police force the agents of change that are important for the performance of any large organization. Police should adopt the general staffing policies used by other large organizations: make a job description of the position that needs to be filled, post that description both inside and outside the police force, sort the candidates in terms of qualifications and experience, interview those who seem most qualified and skilled, then hire the best candidate. This is now standard practice for hiring detectives in the United Kingdom, where the police web site states clearly that to become a detective, no police experience is necessary.
Three important changes will result from following this process. First, it will force the police force to develop a much clearer picture of the kinds of work the force needs to be doing. Managers will not be able to continue in the same old way; they will be required to be clear about tasks to be performed and the skills needed for those tasks. Second, it will bring individuals with a variety of life experiences and expectations into the police force, two qualities that can only improve the organization. And these new hires will not be infected with police culture; they will be ready to challenge that culture.
Third, money will no longer be required to be spent training officers to do particular tasks that require special skills, or for filling in for those officers while they take that training.
Fourth, with new hires having experienced different employment opportunities and ways of relating to people, they will be in a better position to bring more compassion to the position of police officer.
The same approach should be taken when considering management promotions.
There is nothing better than a good manager who makes you feel valued and encourages you to be innovative in your work. There is nothing worse than a manager who makes you feel small and hedged in, bound by rules, and not able to allow you to take chances as you perform your duties. One result of bad managers is a strong staff organization or union that exists to give staff some protection.
Organizations of police officers are almost uniformly strong and ambitious, doing damage control with managers who are not very good at their jobs. The reason is quite simple: Within police forces, managers are all appointed from below, working their way up the hierarchy. The longer people are in the police force, the more likely they are to become managers, or, put another way, the more they reflect the dominant police culture, the more likely they are to become managers.
The solution is to seek managers, of all genders, from outside police organizations with commitments to reducing the impact of policing on marginalized people. As noted above, this means a posted job listing with a job description that invites applicants from the world at large. It is true that outsiders will have little knowledge of police operations, but good managers are quick learners who are adept at determining how organizations function and the best ways to ensure staff satisfaction. Managers brought in from other organizations will have the unenviable task of implementing effective change in an organization that is reluctant to change, but they will also bring with them new management styles and fresh insights that will greatly improve police services.
The Board responded that the UK example of hiring detectives without police experience was adopted because of a shortage of detectives; it is still in a preliminary stage and has yet to be evaluated. It also noted that Ontario legislation limits open hiring and that the Toronto Board is setting criteria within this system.
4. Subscribe to the Bulletin
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this Bulletin, please send a note to info@tpac.ca with the instructions in the subject line or in the text of the message. Our e-mail list is confidential and will not be made available to others. There is no charge for the Bulletin. Our website is http://www.tpac.ca .
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