Policing the police

In this issue: 1. Bill 103, a new police complaints commission; 2. A new police program: 25 and out; 3. Corruption charges within the Toronto Police Force: 4. 2007 police budget; 5. Policing the RCMP

By John Sewell –

Toronto Police Accountability Bulletin No. 32,
December 20, 2006

In this issue: 1. Bill 103, a new police complaints commission; 2. A new police program: 25 and out; 3.
Corruption charges within the Toronto Police Force: 4.2007 police budget; 5. Policing the RCMP

1. Bill 103, a new police complaints commission

Bill 103, which implements the LeSage Report establishing a new process for complaints against the
police, was given Second Reading by the Ontario Legislature in late October and referred to the
Standing Committee on Justice Policy.

But the Committee has yet to establish when (or if) public hearings will be held on the Bill. Legislative
rules state that a standing committee cannot have public hearings without the consent of the Legislature. That consent may be given before the
Legislature adjourns Thursday December 21, but if it is not, then public hearings could not be authorized
before the Legislature resumes sitting in mid-March2007.

Government sources have made it clear that they do not want the spring session interrupted with contentious
matters and that's what Bill 103 could be: those familiar with policing matters believe the Bill is not
strong enough, and police advocates are generally not supportive of a strong and effective complaints
mechanism. So if there is no agreement by Thursday to hold hearings, chances are the Bill will never be
enacted. While the Bill may not make a perfect complaints system, it would be much better than the
complaints system now in place.

Will permission be given for public hearings before adjournment on Thursday? Only the leaders of the three
political parties know for sure. It seems like a most unsatisfactory way to deal with public business.

The Chair of the Justice Policy Committee is Lorenzo Berardinetti, (Liberal, Scarborough); the leading
Liberal on the Committee is David Zimmer (Willowdale).
Peter Kormos is the NDP member.

2. A new police program: 25 and out

Organizations can reveal their inner essence in
unexpected ways, and that seems to have occurred
recently with the Toronto Police Service.

It occurred during a December 13 hearing of a charge
of insubordination against two police officers. The
hearing officer, Superintendent Tweedy, recounted the
fact that there was acrimony between Sergeant Shawn
Elliott and Officer David Deviney, and that probably
led to the incident on which the insubordination
charge was based. Here's Tweedy:

"Their platoon commander, Staff Sergeant Jack Kelly,
had instituted a practice of encouraging his officers
(in 23 Division, Rexdale) to write 25 traffic tickets
during a work shift and then as a reward, allowed the
successful officers to go home before the end of their
assigned duty. The practice became known as the "25
and out" practice."

Deviney, a 30 year veteran, refused to participate,
saying the practice was unethical, and he is said to
have reported the matter to the Internal Affairs
department of the police. Elliot responded, according
to Tweedy, by speaking to Deviney's colleagues and
said "they should not speak, socialize or golf with
him." (Deviney is a fairly well known police officer
in Toronto. In 1990 he was acquitted of manslaughter
in the shooting death of Lester Donaldson.)

Subsequent to this, Elliot claims that on May 2, 2005,
he told Deviney to write an occurance report on an
event in which nothing happened. Deviney and his shift
partner said no such order was given, but Elliot
brought the charge of insubordination because his
order had not been followed. Tweedy decided on the
basis of evidence given at the hearing that Elliott
did not give such an order. The charges of
insubordination were dismissed.

Here's what Tweedy said about `25 and out:' "I must
state that if the `25 and out' practice is still an
existing practice, I direct that it cease immediately.
I find it is an affront to the public interest and
cannot be condoned as legitimate law enforcement
behaviour, where quotas and personal benefit influence
the day. It is but a sad example of unacceptable
conduct undermining discipline, undermining unit
cohesiveness and contributing to a compromised
management and work environment."

There are many questions which remain unanswered:

a) How long was `25 and out' in effect? When did it
start, when was it stopped, and who stopped it? (One
police official says it is not longer in operation,
but no date was given when it was cancelled or who
made the order.)

b) Have similar programs been used - and are they
being used - in other divisions? Which divisions?
When?

c) Does a staff superintendent - this is a very senior
position in the police department - have the ability
to create these kinds of incentives on his/her own?
What supervision is provided by the chief's office for
actions taken by a staff superintendent?

d) Why would a staff superintendent for Rexdale ever
think that so much emphasis should be put on traffic
offences in this part of the city? Given the force's
history of racial profiling, who were the individuals
who actually received the tickets? Did this program
compromise public safety in Rexdale by diverting
police resources? Can one assume that the policing of
major crime activity in Rexdale decreased because of
this priority?

e) After Deviney went to Internal Affairs with his
complaint about `25 and out', what did Internal
Affairs do? If it did not stop the program, why not?

f) Why was so much time and energy spent by management
in pursuing this charge of insubordination? Is this
normal behaviour on the part of senior management? Are
most cases of insubordination so flimsy and minor? Is
this a useful way to spend public funds?

TPAC intends to bring these matters to the attention
of the Police Services Board when it next meets in
January.

3. Corruption allegations within the Toronto Police
Force

Dave Seglins of CBC Radio has discovered that alleged
serious internal problems within the police force have
been kept under wraps for more than five years.

Apparently the Internal Affairs Department of the
Toronto Police Services prepared a report in 2001
about serious problems involving drug squads after
some officers had faced criminal and misconduct
charges. The report, written by Inspector Tony Corrie
proposed that a team of officers prepare an internal
investigation on the drug squad. Corrie feared that a
large investigation might lead to a full-blown public
inquiry, so as an alternative he recommended a process
that was smaller and more focussed. Lawyers
representing those accused of drug crimes at the time
claim their clients had been robbed by members of the
drug squad. Presumably it was that kind of allegation
that Corrie's report was attempting to deal with.

Julian Fantino, Police Chief at the time, took the
fast and focussed route recommended by Corrie and
established a task force which concluded that the
problems were under control. However in May 2006,
officer Jim Cassels, who had been part of the
investigation, said as he was retiring that
supervisors had not followed up on the many cases of
alleged corruption and abuse the investigation had
revealed. Cassels' opinion was reinforced this
November when another member of the police task force,
Neal Ward, confirmed it. The CBC says it learned that
officers were suspected of running several drug rings.

When the matter was discussed at the Police Services
Board in November, the Chief was asked about the
matter. There seemed to be agreement that nothing
further could or would be done until the trials of the
officers involved had concluded, some time in 2008.
While one recognizes the need to ensure officers
receive a fair trial, it often seems that questionable
activities within the police force never seem to be
investigated seriously, in a public way, until the
next generation of officers is in charge.

4. 2007 police budget

The Police Services Board has yet to discuss budget
estimates for 2007, but it's likely that once again
the police will try to walk away with the largest
increase given to any branch of the city's civil
service.

In 2006 the police received an allocation of $751
million from City Council. According to an August 2005
report, for 2007 the police service will be asking for
at least $784 million, or about $30 million more, to
pay for the 140 additional officers (each additional
officer brings an additional expense of about $100,000
a year) and the other expenses that are
`uncontrollable.'

The City's problem is that it must cut more than $500
million from its $7.6 billion budget in order to
balance its books. The question is: what services will
have to be cut so that the police force can continue
to expand? Why does the police force have to be so
large when the data produced by the police shows that
on average each officer answers one call per shift?

5. Policing the RCMP

Many concerns are being expressed in Ottawa about the
extent to which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
appears to be disorganized and following an agenda of
its own. The focus has mostly been on what the RCMP
did to help ensure that Maher Arar was shipped to
Syria and tortured, but there are many instances which
indicate that the RCMP is not providing a good
national policing service. The RCMP is not just
involved in national security issues: it provides
policing services under contract with a number of
provinces.

One very frightening incident in local policing
occurred in British Columbia when Ian Bush died in
police custody in October 2005, after being arrested
for having an open beer outside a hockey game. The
spokesman for the RCMP was questioned about what
actually happened and replied, "The public does not
have a right to know anything." Indeed, very little
information has come out in the past year about how
Mr. Bush died.

Some have wondered whether simply appointing a new
Police Commissioner for the RCMP will create the
necessary change in that organization. Some suggest
that a citizen panel is needed to oversee the RCMP -
although the experience with police service boards in
Ontario does not lead one to believe that this is an
effective mechanism for controlling police culture.
It's a big question: how can the police be made to
serve the community rather than the other way around?
Perhaps smaller police forces would be a start so that
the police culture did not have such as large place in
which to breed.

(Published monthly by the Toronto Police
Accountability Coalition, 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)