Five-Year Hiring Plan

The Toronto Police Services Board adopted a motion for a five-year hiring plan, committing to hiring 720 police officers over the next two years.

“It will bring certainty to our ability to continue to hire police officers to keep our great city safe,” Chief Myron Demkiw said. “This is unprecedented. In my view, it’s a historic moment.”

In the first two years, the plan commits to funding the full provincial training allocation, four full classes of 90 officers. The next three years the Board agrees in principle to improve upon the Cop to Pop ratio (number of police officers compared to 100,000 residents) as funding allows.

Demkiw said the Service continues to work towards presenting a full budget request in December but the hiring plan allows for longer term planning.

“We typically budget year to year,” Demkiw said. “We have two years of a tangible, understandable commitment and a further commitment in principle, for not only cop to pop, but cop to pop-plus.”

Councillor Shelley Carroll said the hiring plan addresses the most important part of the budget, the number of police officers.

“While today we have one of the lowest cop to pop ratio compared to other North American cities, we are starting today to do everything we can to improve it,” Carroll said. “And that means we can focus on the things the Board wants to put extra resources on when we adopt in 2025 the new Toronto Services Board strategic plan.”

Carroll said the hiring plan allows the Service to allocate personnel where they are needed most, noting increases in hate crime, car theft and intimate partner violence require reallocating resources to react to the complex problems facing Toronto.