2018 City Impacts of the Toronto Policy Service’s Action Plan

This Note is part of a series of Notes on key City issues to update City Council at the start of its 2018 – 2022 term.

Issue description

The Toronto Police Service’s (TPS) Transformational Task Force’s (TTF) final report, Action Plan: The Way Forward, contains 32 recommendations. An additional recommendation to establish a Neighbourhood Officer Program was added to the Action Plan to advance the TTF’s goal of building safe communities and neighbourhoods.

As part of the implementation of the TTF report, the City and TPS have been working together to identify recommendations that will have or may have an impact on City or there is an opportunity for the City to support the TPS as it implements these recommendations. To date, nine recommendations have been identified that may impact the City.

Status

The Executive Committee at its July 17, 2018 meeting, considered an update on these nine recommendations. The status of each of these recommendations can be found in the report, Toronto Police Service’s ‘Action Plan: The Way Forward’: Impacts and Opportunities to City divisions.

The City Manager’s Office is leading and coordinating corporate support for the TPS to assist with implementation of the TTF recommendations where appropriate. City staff will bring forward reports for City Council consideration on the impacts to the City of the TTF recommendations as required.

Background

The majority of the 32 TTF recommendations are focused on the internal operations of the TPS and will have little or no direct impact on City divisions. There are nine TTF recommendations that that will have or may have an impact on City. These include:

  • Recommendation 4: Risk Assessment for Priority Response
  • Recommendation 12: Alternate Delivery of the (beach) Lifeguard Program
  • Recommendation 13: Transfer of the School Crossing Guard Program
  • Recommendation 14: Using Traffic Enforcement Technology to Improve Community Safety
  • Recommendation 16: City-wide Divisional Boundary and Facilities Realignment
  • Recommendation 20: Alternative or Shared Service Delivery of Court Security
  • Recommendation 21: Alternative or Shared Service Delivery of Parking Enforcement
  • Recommendation 23: Investment in 9-1-1
  • Recommendation 33: Neighbourhood Officer

Each of the nine recommendations is currently at various stages of implementation and as such, City staff are either:

  • fully engaged with the TPS to advance its implementation;
  • providing advice and expertise to the TPS; and
  • monitoring the TPS’s implementation activities.

Overview of the Task Force

On December 15, 2017, the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) formed the TTF with a mandate to determine how best to modernize the structure and service delivery of the TPS to enable more effective and efficient policing services.

The TTF was jointly chaired by the Chair of the TPSB and the Chief of Police and included 12 members of the TPS and additional external subject matter experts.

The TTF estimated that implementation of its recommendations would result in budget reductions, cost avoidance and efficiencies in the TPS Operating Budget of $100 million between 2017 and 2019.

Actions and Plans

Date Actions
July 2018 Executive Committee received for information the report entitled Toronto Police Service’s ‘Action Plan: The Way Forward’ – Impacts and Opportunities to City Divisions that provided an overview of the nine TTF recommendations where the City is engaged and an update on the activities to date
November 2017 City Council adopted the report entitled Toronto Police Transformational Task Force Report and Impacts on City Divisions approving the transfer of the school crossing guard program and the beach lifeguard program from the Toronto Police Service (TPS) to the City.
May 2017 Executive Committee received from the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) the Task Force’s Action Plan as its 2017-2019 business plan and its request for Council to comment on the Plan. Executive Committee referred the report to the City Manager to report back on potential impacts of the Task Force recommendations on City divisions, and opportunities to improve the alignment of services.