Toronto Police Service
2024 Budget Fact Sheet
February 2024
- The Service has experienced a period of reform and fiscal constraint since 2010 that has resulted in the reduction of almost 600 officers (average deployed) since 2010 and cost avoidance and savings of $270M - $400M.
- 1999 – 2023:
- Service’s average net budget increase (on the City’s property tax base) was approx. 3.4% per year
- 5% from 1999 – 2009; 2.3% from 2010 – 2023 with 4 x 0% budgets in the last 10 years
- TPS share of the City’s total budget has declined over the last 10 years
- The following pressures needed to be absorbed within the budget increases:
- Average collective agreement increase of 2.7% per year
- Average inflation of 2.3% per year
- Population increase was just over 600K – every 100K increase in population translates to approximately 65,000 more calls for service
- Number of deployed officers increased from 5,089 (1999) to a peak of 5,600 (2010) and is currently 5,126. An overall increase of only 37 officers
- Impacts of this constraint include:
- 22+ minute average response time (Priority 1) – compared to 12.8 minutes in 2010
- 60% of the time no units are readily available to respond
- Investigation backlog and declining case closure rates
- 13,000+ case backlog for court disclosure
- Challenges to continue implementing calls for reform
- Employee morale and retention issues
- Gaps in leadership and supervisory pipeline (reduced upward mobility to preserve frontline strength)
- Heightened operational and reputational risks
- Leanest Service in North America
- TPS response time is almost double the next worst time across Canada. Ranges between 6 – 12 mins
- Consistently one of the lowest budget increases province-wide since 2015
- Leanest ‘cop to pop’ compared to other major North American cities
- Budget historically includes $30-$50M unfunded cost pressure that is managed in-year, with less than 1% variance
- Service’s average net budget increase (on the City’s property tax base) was approx. 3.4% per year
- Accelerating City population - expected to grow as much in two years (2022 – 2024) as it did in the last seven years (2015 – 2022).
- Toronto is the national hub to sports, entertainment, political and economic activity
- 20% of Canada’s GDP; 50% of Ontario’s GDP
- Home to 40% of all Canadian headquarters
- Home to the country’s only major league baseball and basketball teams
- Out of 108 consular offices in Ontario, 87 are located in Toronto
- $10B economic impact of tourism and 27M+ annual visitors
- Overall workload factors have been steadily increasing.
- Emergency calls for service have increased by 18% (2022 vs 2023)
- Major crime is up by 27% from 2015 – 2022; 20% year over year between 2022/2023
- Vehicle thefts in the city were up 24.5 per cent last year compared to 2022, with 12,181 recorded in 2023
- Assault is up 15%
- Break and Enter/Theft is up 25%
- 130% increase in carjackings (2019 vs 2022)
- Over 2,300 events and demonstrations (planned and unplanned)
- Despite how constrained resources have been, the Service continues to deliver the best service that the budget has allowed:
- 5.5% increase in number of calls attended (2022 vs 2023)
- 20%+ increase in arrests and traffic related enforcement actions
- Community trust through Neighbourhood Community Officers and other preventative programming
- However, gaps continue to widen in service delivery (response times, case closure rates, backlogs).
- +307 Uniform Staffing outlined in the Board approved 2024 budget supports core service delivery and attempts to achieve adequate and effective service levels:
- Min. 170 - Frontline support to prevent further degradation of response times – deployment will be front-end loaded in the beginning of the year
- 110 - Greater investigative capacity for more timely case closure (e.g. Homicide, Missing Persons Unit)
- 10 - Increased Traffic services to keep the City moving
- 10 – Support timely evidence disclosure
- 7 – Implementation work on police reform, new act and Auditor General’s recommendations
- Included in the numbers above - augmented supervision of a younger and younger workforce for increased accountability, minimize operational risk
- There are capacity limits on uniform cadet class sizes making it very difficult to catch up on hiring interruptions
- +102 Civilian staffing to deliver and provide direct support to core service delivery functions and continue implementing committed police reforms
- 47 - Direct divisional/detective support (e.g. crime scene technologists, intel analysts)
- 17 - Improved evidence management and mandatory court disclosure compliance
- 17 - Create capacity and strengthen community trust through technology and digital enablement
- 21 – Implementation work on recommendations related to police reform, new act, Auditor General, Missing and Missed
- Continue supporting safer communities through alternative service delivery, call diversion, and vital community programming (Neighbourhood Officers)
- Develop long-term forecast (5 - 10 year plan) and develop options for greater funding sustainability (multi-levels of government, public/private partnership opportunities, etc.)
- Continued and potentially growing service gaps with 911 call wait times and case closure rates
- Cases lost in court due to insufficient case disclosure and case management – impacting victims and their families
- Continued gaps in supervision and growing retention issues resulting in significant risks to operations, reputation and organizational wellbeing
- Reductions to proactive activities (Traffic enforcement, community work, Neighbourhood Officers) in order to prioritize priority response, translating to:
- Reduction in referrals to other partner agencies
- Higher degree of recidivism/repeat calls and victimization
- Greater traffic congestion (Toronto is the most-congested city in Canada, 7th most-congested city globally)
- Lack of upfront investment does not allow for capacity creation and efficiencies through innovation/technology
- Community sentiment of feeling safe at risk of declining
- Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey indicated 68% of businesses in Toronto would like to see reduction in crime
- Retail Council of Canada indicates that businesses are very concerned about the increase in violence associated with retail crime reporting an increase in violence, assaults, arson and property damage that are perpetrated in their locations and have gone up 200, 300-percent since pre-pandemic
- Residents of Toronto are more likely than the average Canadian (27%) to say they feel unsafe taking public transit alone. (IPSOS Poll March 6, 2023)
- Exponential increase in Hate Crimes, especially as a result of geo-political events which has caused damage to businesses through acts of graffiti or arson