Organizational News

*Check against Delivery*

Deputy Chief of Police Lauren Pogue

Chair, as you know, Chief Demkiw is unable to join us in-person today.

It appears not even the Chief can beat some of the cold and flu symptoms that are impacting so many of us these days. 

Chief, we're sorry you can't be here in-person with us. We wish you a speedy recovery and with that, I will invite CAO Dhaliwal to start our updates with the 2025 Budget request.

CAO Svina Dhaliwal

Thank you, Deputy.

We have made our budget request to the Board this month, and I want to thank the team who worked really hard on this.

The budget team came together and came through, with the help of many in this room, and a special acknowledgement for our friends at Analytics and Innovation and Corporate Communications. 

We also have some of our city finance counterparts here today and I want to also thank them for their continued support and collaboration throughout this process.

It’s truly been a team effort.

As the city continues to grow, the safety of Torontonians remains the Service’s top priority.

Our members do an outstanding job protecting the city, but to be able to deliver even more results, we need continued investment, including more police officers.

The cornerstone of our 2025 budget request is the continuation of a multi-year hiring plan that allows the Service to address core service delivery, including frontline and investigative capacity.

In November, the Board approved a motion recommending a multi-year hiring approach that will see four classes of 90 recruits join the Service in 2025 and in 2026.

This will make a meaningful difference.

Our budget request is fiscally responsible, and it is focused on delivering results.

Results like continuing to reduce call response times for priority one calls with more officers on the frontline, and 90 operators to get the communications centre fully staffed up.

To give you only one example, the volume of priority one calls attended in the first nine months of 2024 are greater than the priority one calls for the whole year of 2015, and same for 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Despite this, we have been able to reduce average call response times by more than 5 minutes, approximately a 26% reduction, for priority one calls.

We will continue making progress on this front.

We also remain focused on case closure rates, disclosure compliance to support the courts processes and keep Toronto moving through a combination of education and deterrence. 

This budget will also allow the Toronto Police Service to continue its commitment towards police reform, modernization, pursuing alternative service delivery and organizational wellbeing, while working towards achieving a community safety and wellbeing vision.

We will expand the Neighbourhood Community Officer Program into four new neighbourhoods.

And finally, another important pillar of our Budget is technology.

Investments in technology must continue to be at the core of how we modernize our Service and create much needed capacity.

We have already deployed technology such as body-worn cameras, video bail, Automatic licence plate readers, an online parking complaints portal, a portal to facilitate the public’s reporting of hate-motivated graffiti, a digital evidence platform, data analytics, and more.

We are moving in the right direction, and with your support we will be able to go even further and faster.

Thank you. I will now pass it back over to Deputy Pogue.

Deputy Chief Pogue

Thank you.

As CAO Dhaliwal just mentioned, we are constantly looking for ways to leverage technology and find efficiencies.

We have seen a good example of this during the Taylor Swift concerts recently when we piloted a new tool for deployment.

Let me begin by sharing a video that explains one of the ways we used technology to save time during a large, dynamic and ever-changing operation. (Watch the video here) 

We will continue to develop this time-saving tool for future major deployments.

The Eras Tour in Toronto required such major deployments.

While the safety and security of Taylor Swift herself was always a consideration, the primary focus of the security planning was the protection of the 282,000 concert goers and thousands more members of the public who attended the area to celebrate the Eras event.

In policing, crowds like these represent a massive “soft target” and our deployment strategy contained sufficient personnel and measures to mitigate the risk.

Our police presence was highly visible and vigilant surrounding the Rogers Centre and the surrounding area, and we received many compliments on social media about the professionalism and positivity of our officers.

I can confirm with you today that the policing cost to the Service during the series of concerts is estimated at $1.9 million.

To put this into context, the costs required per concert are comparable to what’s needed for a Raptors playoff game.

The concerts drew international attention to our city. The energy was incredible, and it was really inspiring to engage directly with so many women and girls.  

As the week went on, we saw a meaningful opportunity to promote the fact that we are trying to recruit talented women.

With this goal in mind, I invited 25 women members to engage with Swift fans and talk about career opportunities for women at the Toronto Police Service.

This engagement focused on fostering positive interactions that could inspire someone to consider a career in policing in their future.

I would like to play for you a short video that has been seen by thousands saying, “We’re hiring, Swifties welcome”. (Watch the video here)

Thank you. I'll turn it over to Deputy Johnson. 

Deputy Chief of Police Rob Johnson

Thank you, Deputy Pogue.

Whether it’s during concerts, sporting events, or protests and demonstrations, we continue to have a visible presence.

Chair, as you know, our city has been experiencing increasing levels of hateful behaviour.

We are committed to investigating every reported incident, whether it involves mischief, assault, or hate-motivated or geopolitical graffiti.

Hateful graffiti not only defaces public spaces but also leaves a lasting impact on the communities it targets.

To help address this specific issue, we launched a portal to facilitate the public’s reporting of hate-motivated graffiti.

It is monitored 24/7 so that officers can be dispatched to investigate.

Our Hate Crime Unit now includes 28 members, up from only 6 over a year ago.

This Unit, led by our Superintendent of Intelligence Services, is staffed with internationally recognized investigators and specialists in hate crime.

Since October 7th, 2023, we have made 189 arrests and laid 515 charges related to hate crimes.

The members of the Toronto Police Service are, quite literally, on the front lines of ensuring the safety of our communities.

We have increased the presence of both plainclothes and uniformed officers during protests and have rotated command posts in various neighbourhoods as needed to increase police visibility.

As demonstrated by the numbers of arrests and charges, we will not tolerate violence and hateful acts.

Chair, before we end our remarks today, on behalf of the Chief and the whole Command team, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our police officers, special constables and civilian members who consistently step up when needed.

As 2024 comes to a close, our members remain tireless.

They will continue to be on the frontlines throughout the Holidays.

They are protecting our residents, our economy, and the events that we love.

Our 2025 Budget request demonstrates that we have a solid plan.

And we are ready to tackle 2025 with whatever it brings us.

As CAO Dhaliwal highlighted earlier, the cornerstone of our 2025 budget request is the continuation of a multi-year hiring plan.

We look forward to welcoming new members, as we did at the end of November, when we had the honour of presenting new badges to 91 Police Constable Recruits.

A few weeks ago, we also welcomed a new class of 54 Special Constables.

Each of them will enhance our organization with a wealth of diverse life and professional experiences, culture, and languages that uniquely reflect the diversity of our amazing city.

We were grateful to welcome them, and we will be grateful to welcome new recruits in the coming years.

Happy holidays. Thanks everyone.