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Chief Myron Demkiw - Introduction

Chair, this is our last meeting with the Toronto Police Service Board this year.

It has been a busy year, including watching the World Series this past fall.

Throughout 2025, we have spoken cautiously about Community Safety Indicators showing positive trends.

Today, we can confidently say that Toronto has experienced a significant reduction in overall crime this year.

That being said, it is also important to look at long-term trends and acknowledge some of these indicators have been on the rise over the past decade.

So, while we always remain vigilant, we are committed to building on this momentum in the new year.

Today, as you know, we will discuss our Budget for 2026, in which, on behalf of the Toronto Police Service, I am requesting an increase of 7%, the equivalent of $93.8 million, over last year’s Budget.

The cornerstone of this Budget is the continuation of our multi-year hiring plan, taking into account increases related to collective bargaining agreements and the increasing cost of employee benefits.

In 2025, we have made progress on many fronts:

• Most Community Safety Indicators are down
• Priority 1 response times are down
• We have seized 528 crime guns
• We announced the largest cocaine seizure in Toronto Police history
• We have expanded the Neighbourhood Community Officer program, including in the TTC
• We have managed many large events, and many protests and demonstrations

I’m proud of the outstanding work our members have accomplished this year.

Every success we have achieved as an organization is because of their dedication and effort.

Chair, one of my top priorities in the new year continues to be to build trust in and within the Service.

Last week, we organized our first-ever Service-wide town hall.

We were pleased to see members logging in online, and we also received reports of workplaces where many people gathered to watch on the same screen.

In total, we reached well over 1,400 members.

We had a robust “Ask Us Anything” session where Command and senior leadership answered questions directly on a wide variety of issues.

This kind of dialogue is essential for transparency and trust. And it is something that we will continue to build on, and do again in the coming year.

Thank you. I will now turn it over to Deputy Chief Johnson.

Deputy Chief Rob Johnson

Thank you, Chief.

Chair, the Chief mentioned the excellent work of our members and police officers this year.

We have seen another example of their courage last week when officers intercepted suspects near Highway 401 and Weston Road, related to a kidnapping and home invasion incident, in the early hours of December 3rd.

The suspects were armed and dangerous.

One of them pointed a handgun at our officers, and was eventually safely taken into custody.

Two additional suspects remain outstanding, and we are doing everything we can to find them.

This is yet another testament to the courage, skills, and professionalism of our officers, who continue to perform at the highest level even in dynamic and dangerous situations.

Chair, despite dangerous incidents like the one I just mentioned, overall Community Safety Indicators continue to be down compared to last year.

• Homicides are down 55%.
• Car thefts are down 27%.
• Shooting and firearm discharges are down 43%.
• Hate crime occurrences are down 41%.

Since October 7th 2023, there have been 3,741 protests and demonstrations in Toronto.

788 of those protests and demonstrations, related to Project Resolute, resulted in 169 arrests and 309 charges. Of these, 10 individuals were arrested in relation to 16 hate motivated charges.

So far in 2025, there have been 255 reported hate-motivated crimes, 62 arrests, and 141 charges laid.

As a reminder, Project Resolute was put in place in the fall of 2023 to make police resources available for the many dynamic situations occurring on a weekly, and often, daily basis.

This includes proactive initiatives, such as police engagements in community centres and places of worship.

As part of Project Resolute, our officers will maintain a visible presence, and we will continue to do what is necessary to keep our communities safe.

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

Deputy Chief Lauren Pogue

Thank you. Chair, one of our top priorities for 2025 was to reduce response times.

Priority 1 Response time is now down 13.9 minutes, down 20% compared to last year.

And average 911 wait time this year is 40 seconds, down over 25%.

If you are familiar with the 911 NENA Standard, it is to answer 90% of 911 calls within 15 seconds and 95% within 20 seconds.

In November, we had 14 days where we met that standard. 

For comparison, it’s worth noting that in the first half of the year, we didn’t meet the standard even once. So, this represents clear improvement.

And this work continues.

On November 12th, we officially welcomed 36 new Communications Operators.

All of our teams are working collaboratively: Comms Operators, PRU, TPOC, and the DSOs and IT. And we continue to allocate resources strategically to improve further.

This is another example of why our Budget request and our multi-year hiring plan are so essential: because we want to keep investing in this progress.

Progress like expanding our NCO program into 4 communities, which were announced last month:

• Dufferin Grove, in 11 Division; 
• Banbury-Don Mills/Victoria Village, in 33 Division;
• Wexford-Maryvale, in 41 Division; and 
• Etobicoke City Centre, in 22 Division

Each of these new communities will get four NCOs, that we are able to provide thanks to our multi-year hiring plan.

These neighbourhoods were chosen based on occurrences of violent crimes and crimes involving youth, community safety indicators, proximity to transit and schools, SafeTO recommendations, and other factors.

And in addition, as you heard the Chief say, we’re also expanding the NCO program to the TTC subway system.

Many communities want to see more police officers because we know that police presence makes a difference. 

The NCO program is an amazing example of what we call community policing: officers who know residents by their first names, and are able to intervene early, prevent conflicts before they escalate, and help connect people with the resources they need.

We are committed to further expanding the NCO program in the coming years.

And before I end, Chair, this week we provided an update to the public on our three-month traffic congestion campaign, now at the halfway mark.

As you know, our parking Enforcement and Traffic Services Units have been increasing enforcement of Highway Traffic Act and City of Toronto bylaw offences in the downtown core during peak afternoon hours.

Since the campaign began, our officers have issued:

• 893 tickets in total, including:
  • 826 Highway Traffic Act tickets
  • 67 bylaw tickets
  • Of this total, 186 tickets were for a Prohibited Turn, 228 for Distracted Driving, and 39 for Don’t Block the Box offences.

Thank you, I will now pass it over to CTO Stairs.

CTO Colin Stairs

Thank you, Deputy.

Chair, I have an update for the online reporting system.

Online reporting helps reduce the burden on our non-emergency call lines and improves service times for everyone.

The public can now report theft, damage, graffiti, and fraud (without any financial limit) through our new Online Reporting System.

To be able to address crime, we must ensure crime is being reported and we just made this easier.

Co-design is at the centre of our approach. 

We consulted broadly with members of the public and with TPS members (Call takers, Front line and Investigative officers ).

We custom-built the reporting solution to work best for Torontonians and we iterated the design as we watched residents interact with it.

The results are very positive. 

With 98 languages available we have seen 125 reports in languages other than English – improving access and equity.

86% recommended the tool in the post-interaction survey.

And as we continuously improved the tools over the past 5 months, we have seen a 17% increase in the number of online reports filed. 

This continues to improve as more residents discover the online reporting tools, and we expand the reports covered as we are doing again today. Thank you.

I will now pass it back to the Chief.

Chief Myron Demkiw

Chair, on top of all the great work of our officers, what makes me incredibly proud of the Toronto Police is everything we do as individuals and as an organization to contribute to our communities.

Last month, we wrapped up our TPS United Way Campaign, a campaign that raised $271,000.

I want to thank everyone who donated, volunteered, or helped in any way.

In November, we also hosted the Chief’s Gala that continues to be successful year after year. This year, we raised $1.5 million.

It was good to see so many people coming together to support the necessary and incredible work of Victim Services Toronto.

I also want to thank all our members who participated in Movember this year.

Last I heard, the Toronto Police Movember Campaign has raised over $15,000, making us the highest-fundraising police service across Canada for the third year in a row.

Over the last 13 years, service members have raised a total of over $380,000, supporting research, programming, and awareness for men’s health.

We have incredible people in this organization who care about their job and their communities, and who take their position as role models seriously.

There is no break for the Toronto Police, the mission of this organization is 24/7.

So, many of our members will be working during the holidays to make sure people can celebrate safely and with peace of mind.

This is true during the holidays, and it is true all year long:

When officers are not on the job, I encourage them to spend time with family and friends as much as they can, just like I often remind our members to do everything they can to take care of themselves and each other.

This Command will continue to be there to support our members.

And we look forward to the new year to keep working together to deliver even more results for everyone in this great city.

Thank you.