Message from the Chief

The Toronto Police Service is very pleased that the Toronto Police Services Board has passed its Race-Based Data Collection, Analysis and Public Reporting Policy.

We are committed to the promotion of equity, fairness and non-discriminatory policing in Toronto. In fact, we began working on our strategy to guide the organization in suppoting the “Anti-Racism Act” over one year ago.

This work continues and we will be engaging the community, and our officers with the objective of launching our new Race-Based Data Collection Strategy in January of 2020.

The purpose of the new policy, and our strategy, is to identify, to monitor, and to eliminate potential systemic racism.

Collecting the data will allow us to analyze, and report on it.

It will allow the Service to be informed, to recognize trends, and to develop training and procedures to best equip our officers to do their jobs safely. With that, it will support our Members in delivering intelligence-led, bias-free policing.

It will also eliminate speculation about our interactions with the community – and allow both the public and the Service to learn from our experiences.

And while we will meet all of the requirements of the Board’s new policy - including the collection and analysis of data, transparent reporting on findings, and the development of action plans – I’m pleased to advise that we will be going one step further.

When we implement the Strategy, we will be adding “Level 3 searches”, also known as strip searches, in order to address what we heard from the “Golden Rule Report” from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director.

Our Strategy will be led by our Equity, Inclusion and Human Rights Unit which we have developed over the last year and have carefully staffed with considerable subject-matter-expertise.

With over 4,000 police agencies collecting race-based data worldwide, we will also learn from their Best Practices to inform the implementation of our own Strategy.

This is a pivotal point in the history of the Toronto Police Service.

Our work today to incorporate an anti-racism approach to our policies and procedures, will have far-reaching and progressive impacts for generations to come.

Our modernization plan, The Way Forward, calls for us to meet the needs of a complex city, embrace partnerships and be where the public needs us.

And, our core values direct us to do the right thing, and connect with compassion. I am confident our new Strategy meets all of these principles.

We continue to develop as modern police service that is consistent, transparent, inclusive and community-focused.

Chief Mark Saunders

 

News & Announcements

To learn more about Ontario’s Anti-Racism Act, 2017, and the Anti-Racism Data Standards, visit the Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate.

 

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