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Chief Demkiw:

Good afternoon everyone.

I would like to begin by acknowledging that two years ago today we lost Toronto Police Service Constable Andrew Hong of Traffic Services. 

Constable Hong was 48 years old and served our city for 22 years.

He was in Mississauga participating in a joint training exercise with officers from Peel Regional Police and York Regional Police when he was shot at close range, targeted by a lone gunman on a shooting rampage that killed two other men and injured several others.

I want to offer my support to his wife, his two children and all his friends and co-workers who miss him every day.

This was a devastating loss for the Toronto Police family and our entire policing community.

Chair, I would like to pause for a moment of reflection.

Chair, I want to share with the Board that myself and my command team are very concerned that we are seeing a rise in officers injured in the line of duty.

Whether it’s carjackers ramming police cruisers, motorcyclists running officers over, or officers injured while trying to make an arrest, in 2024 we have seen our officers suffer a significant number of injuries, some of which have been very serious and will require lengthy recoveries.

Just last night we had two officers injured by demonstrators who resisted arrest at a downtown protest.

So far this year, 555 officers have been injured while performing their duties.

These injuries highlight the inherent risks of the job.

We are also seeing a ten-year high in the numbers of assault peace officer offenses - 245 charges laid year to date for assaults on our members.

All of our members should be commended for their bravery and commitment.

To our members that are recovering from injuries suffered, we will continue to support you and wish you continued progress in your healing.

I would like to take a moment to thank members of the public who continue to step in to assist our members who have been injured.

A remarkable example of this occurred when an officer attempted to stop a motorcyclist driving dangerously near the Rogers Centre in late August.

The officer was struck by the motorcyclist who fled the scene, leaving our officer suffering a very serious leg injury.

Three bystanders who are healthcare professionals, stepped in to help other officers that were on-scene, and were in the process of applying a tourniquet. Had it not been for the life-saving measures undertaken by our officers and the willingness of the three civilians to become involved and lend their professional expertise, the outcome for our injured officer could have been much different. 

Our officer remained in hospital for five days receiving treatment for a significant leg injury and is now recuperating at home.

Three weeks ago, Vice Chair Lisa Kostakis and I had the honour of welcoming 90 new Police Constables to the Service.

It’s one of my favorite things to do as we keep building our operational capacity in order to meet the growing complex needs of our city. This was our most diverse class to date. Building a service that mirrors the community we serve is a key part of our continuing effort to building trust and partnerships with our communities.

I am excited to be sharing our multi-year hiring plan with you, which CAO Dhaliwal will discuss later this afternoon. We welcome the opportunity to inject more certainty into our hiring process for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that our hiring plan is a major aspect of our budget. I am pleased that the Board and the City have agreed to undertake this as the Service has been seeking such a plan for quite some time.

As I told the new recruits a few weeks ago, they are joining the Service at a pivotal time, as we experience increased calls for service, and are responding to the dynamic impacts of geo-political events and are managing an unprecedented number of events and protests.

As we approach the first anniversary of the tragic events from October 7th of last year, our Service remains committed to doing all that we can to keep communities safe.

As I committed to last fall, our Service will not only do all that we can to prevent and investigate incidents of hate, we will also be transparent in communicating the quantitative impacts of hate crimes taking place in our city.

Our expanded hate crime unit has made 152 arrests and laid 378 charges in relation to a number of investigations including hate propaganda, mischiefs, uttering threats, criminal harassment, and assaults since October 7th.  

We have responded to 1,744 hate crime calls for service, nearly four times as many when compared to the same time period last year, at 455.

You will recall that at our last Board meeting in July, the Service released the hate crime data Public Safety Data Portal in an effort to promote transparency in hate crime data and trends.

Now I’d like to turn it over to Deputy Pogue to update you on our gun violence strategy.

Deputy Chief Pogue:

Thank you, Chief.

Proactive policing and strategic deployment of our specialized units is at the heart of our gun violence strategy. We remain laser focused on disrupting gun violence and getting crime guns off our streets.

So far this year, we have seized 509 crime guns, 85 per cent originating in the U.S.

Over the Labour Day weekend alone, our officers seized six illegal firearms during a weekend in which the city saw 11 shootings and three homicides.

As a city, we have experienced 325 shooting events so far this year which have resulted in 33 deaths.

Twelve per cent of these shootings are related to an on ongoing territorial dispute involving a small segment of the tow truck industry.

We strategically deployed resources to address this with Project Beacon, which led to four significant arrests, resulting in 177 criminal charges.

Last month, Mayor Olivia Chow led a roundtable discussion about the need for an effective multi-sectoral response to youth crime and gun violence.

We are committed to this work with our partners.

We will do our part by continuing our Service-wide approach to tackling gun violence, by focusing on intervention, enforcement and prevention whenever possible.

I want to highlight some proactive policing that is an example of this whole of service approach.

At the beginning of 2024, leaders at 43 Division started to see a rise in gun violence and quickly took action. They launched two projects that involved divisional resources as well as specialized units.

These proactive initiatives have led to a combined 48 arrests and 406 charges between January and the end of June. Of those arrested, 12 were already out on bail for violent crimes at the time of their arrests. Two were also on bail for firearm offences.

Please turn your attention to the screens for more about this work.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTn7vgHcqeM

The incredible result of this proactive work is that in April this division was leading the city in shooting incidents with 15 firearm discharges.

And since this project, there was one reported firearm discharge in July and one in August.

Disrupting gun violence remains a top priority for our Service.

We are also concerned about how many youths are involved in recent gun violence.

We are working collaboratively with residents, educators, community leaders, faith leaders and agencies to ensure that young people have the support and resources they need to choose a different path, or to get off the path they are already on.

The Community Connect Program, managed by our Youth Liaison Officer in our Community Partnerships and Engagement Unit, has involved more than 3,700 youths who have participated in information sessions and job fairs. 2,500 youths have received training to help reduce barriers and provide a wide range of opportunities to enhance their skills.   

A Youth Symposium will be held for 450 youths in the fall for grade 9 students from across the city as well as school staff, with NCOs and other collaborators attending.

Then there are our FOCUS tables, which is a collaboration of more than 170 Community Agencies led by a cross-sector partnership between the Toronto Police Service, the City of Toronto and the United Way of Greater Toronto. FOCUS helps the most vulnerable in our city.

Of all the TPS referrals made in 2024, 16.2 per cent were youth referrals; between the ages of 14-17 years.

Our Service has seen the value in the FOCUS tables that are established across the city, and we are committed to supporting the program. 

In fact, so far in 2024, the Toronto Police Service has been responsible for 67 per cent of all referrals to the FOCUS tables.

Last year, our Gang Exit Program, known as Engage 416, also identified 715 youths to refer to education, employment or counselling programs last year. 

I will now turn it over to Deputy Johnson for further updates.

Deputy Chief Johnson:

Thank you, Deputy Pogue.

As you know Chair, a significant component of the work the Service does is in the area of crime prevention. It is an element of adequate and effective policing.

This month, Toronto Crime Stoppers is asking the public for tips to help us apprehend auto thieves and prevent offences.

Until September 30th, Crime stoppers is offering up to $5,000 for any tips that lead to an arrest in an auto theft.

We know the public is concerned and frustrated with the organized criminals targeting vehicles across our city. We know that these campaigns work.

We also know that crime prevention information is very popular among Torontonians. Last month, our social media accounts combined reached the 1 million follower milestone!

We appreciate the public’s interest in our work.

Our own analytics over the last year shows that of the 43 million impressions on X, (formally known as twitter) 10 million were posts about crime prevention.

I now want share the results of Project Disrupt which was a sophisticated SIM swap fraud investigation that led to 10 arrests and 108 charges involving more than a million dollars in losses to individual victims, telecom companies and financial institutions.

Our Financial Crimes Unit, in partnership with the Co-ordinated Cyber Centre discovered criminals were taking over cell phone accounts to gain access to bank accounts by impersonating victims at cell phone stores.

1,500 cellular accounts were compromised across Canada and as a result of the investigation, investigators seized more than 400 fraudulent pieces of identification.

We collaborated with telecom companies who then implemented additional security features to help fight this fraud. It’s another example of our commitment to partnership and collaboration with federal partners such as the Co-ordinated Cyber Centre.

The Service is leading in this space to evolve and adapt to continue the fight against complex fraud that is often multi-jurisdictional.

And still on the theme of collaborating with our policing partners, I want to share the results of a significant interprovincial firearms and drug investigation into a Toronto street gang that netted 32 arrests and 158 criminal charges.

Project Foxxx was supported by the Criminal Intelligence Service of Ontario. Our integrated Gun & Gang Task Force worked with York, Peel and the OPP to disrupt a Toronto gang’s drug and firearm trafficking network across Ontario, Manitoba, and as far away as Newfoundland and Labrador.

Toronto police and our policing partners executed 35 search warrants across Canada from Manitoba to Newfoundland.

We seized 9 firearms, 4.7 kilograms of cocaine, 6 kilograms of methamphetamine, and $1.3 million in cash.

This investigation demonstrates the value of inter-agency cooperation in the disruption of criminal networks that seek to undermine the safety and quality of life in our city.

I would now like to turn it over to CAO Svina Dhaliwal.

CAO Svina Dhaliwal:

Thank you, Deputy.

As a Service, we've been steadfast in our efforts to improve our workplace culture and create an environment that's safe and inclusive. This is also an integral part of our equity strategy.

Today, we are submitting a Board Report that provides an update on our ‘Cultivating a Respectful Workplace’ action plan.

This report includes a summary of work done to date, such as overhauling many of our human resource processes, increasing mandatory training, and providing better access to leadership development programs.

And because, as the saying goes, what gets measured gets done, we are tracking progress and collecting relevant data to make sure we reach our goals. We have and continue to enhance transparency through our internal and external communication.

We have processes for greater profiling and career pathing for our sworn and civilian professionals, and we are in the process of improving the complaint intake, triage, investigation and resolution processes.

While there is more to do, the efforts of the last few years are being felt and making an impact.

An evaluation of our enhanced training found that 73 per cent of our members think that we do have the right policies and procedures in place as it relates to workplace safety and inclusivity.

Results of an annual member feedback survey indicated that:

• 79 per cent of members like working at the Service
• 78 per cent of non-uniform civilians said they would recommend the Service to family and friends as a great place to work 
• 64 per cent of respondents felt the Service provides resources that promote a workplace free of harassment and discrimination 

It’s also worth noting that our Executive Leadership Team (Chief, Command team, Directors and Staff Superintendents) is the most diverse of any police service in the country, with members being 56 per cent female and 22 per cent racialized.

To drill down specifically on our uniform leadership, of approximately 80 uniform senior officers (including the Deputy Chiefs):

• 48 per cent belong to at least one historically underrepresented group, compared to 29 per cent in 2018 (according to the Deloitte report)
• 23 per cent of senior officers are racialized; compared to 16 per cent in 2018
• 28 per cent of uniform senior officers are female, up from 13 per cent in 2018

While the Service continues to make great strides in improving workplace culture, we know there is more work to do and we remain committed to the plan and are taking action.

And with that I will turn it back to Chief Demkiw for some closing remarks.

Chief Demkiw:

Thank you, CAO Dhaliwal.

Collaborating and building relationships is at the core of our work.

I want to look ahead to a pilot program beginning next week in partnership with three hospitals in 31, 14 and 51 Divisions.

Special constables will be embedded in emergency rooms to help transfer patients apprehended under the Mental Health Act; moving them from the “custody” of the police to the “care” of the hospital.

Last month we again spoke about ensuring that calls are met with the right response.

Our police officers spend a significant amount of time responding to people in crisis, which has an impact on the availability of police resources.

In fact, at the three pilot hospitals, average wait times for our officers so far in 2024 have ranged from 2 hours and 9 minutes at one hospital to more than 2 and a half hours at one of the other hospitals.

While we have a duty to prevent and investigate crime and we also have a duty to keep people safe.

This project will help us balance those duties more effectively. 

Our goal is to reduce the many hours officers are spending, waiting in hospitals and reduce the transfer of care time frame to about 45 minutes.

Ultimately this will allow us to continue to improve call response times.

And before I conclude, I want to share some news. We have confirmed the appointment of Falguni Debnath as General Counsel and Chief’s Counsel. 

Falguni is a seasoned litigator with over 25 years of legal and leadership experience with governments, courts, and the United Nations. In addition to her extensive experience litigating complex and high-profile matters, she has provided legal, strategic, and policy advice to the Chief Justice of Ontario, the Deputy Attorney General of Ontario, a Commissioner of an Inquiry, and the head of a UN War Crimes Tribunal.

In her most recent role as International Lead Lawyer for the United Nations, she led a team of international lawyers representing over 5,000 survivors of war crimes and genocide. She has also prosecuted war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and breaches of the Vienna Convention.

She brings extensive experience in criminal and civil law and I am confident she will be an excellent addition to our Service.

Please join me in welcoming Falguni to the Toronto Police Service.

Thank you Chair.

We welcome any questions.