Toronto Police Service

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The Toronto Police Service (TPS), also known colloqually as T.O.P.D., formerly the Metropolitan Toronto Police, is the local police force for the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Contents

History

The Toronto Police Force, was founded in 1834 when the City of Toronto was first created from the Town of York. (Prior to that, local able bodied male citizens were required to report for night duty as special constables for a fixed number of nights a year on the pain of fine or imprisonment in a system known as "watch and ward.")[1]

The Toronto Police is one of the English-speaking world’s oldest modern municipal police departments; older than, for example, the legendary NYPD which was formed in 1845 or the Boston Police which was established in 1839. (The London Metropolitan Police of 1829 is generally recognized as the first modern municipal department.) In 1835, Toronto retained five fulltime constables—a ratio of about one officer for every 1,850 citizens. Their daily pay was set at 5 shillings for day duty and 7 shillings, 6 pence, for night duty. In 1837 the constables’ annual pay was fixed at £75 per annum, a lucrative City position when compared to the Mayor’s annual pay of £250 at the time.[2]

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From 1834 to 1859, the Toronto Police was a corrupt and politically biased force with its constables loyal to the local aldermen who personally appointed police officers in their own wards for the duration of their incumbency. Toronto constables on numerous occasions suppressed opposition candidate meetings and took sides during bitter sectarian violence between Orange Order and Irish Catholic radical factions in the city. A Provincial Government report in 1841 described the Toronto Police as “formidable engines of oppression.” Although constables were issued uniforms in 1837, one contemporary recalled that the Toronto Police was "without uniformity, except in one respect—they were uniformly slovenly." After an excessive outbreak of street violence involving Toronto Police misconduct, including an episode where constables brawled with Toronto’s firemen in one incident, and stood by doing nothing in another incident while enraged firemen burned down a visiting circus when its clowns jumped a lineup at a local whorehouse, the entire Toronto Police force, along with its Chief, were fired in 1859.[3]

The new force was removed from Toronto City Council jurisdiction (except for the setting of the annual budget and manpower levels) and placed under the control of a provincially mandated Board of Police Commissioners. Under its new Chief, William Stratton Prince, a former infantry captain, standardized training, hiring practices and new strict rules of discipline and professional conduct were introduced. Today's Toronto Police Service directly traces its ethos, constitutional lineage and Police Commission regulatory structure to the 1859 reforms.[4] [5]

In the 19th Century the Toronto Police mostly focused on the suppression of rebellion in the city -- particularly during the Fenian threats of 1860 - 1870. The Toronto Police were probably Canada's first security intelligence agency when they established a network of spies and informants throughout Canada West in 1864 to combat US Army recruiting agents attempting to induce British Army soldiers stationed in Canada to desert to serve in the Union Army in the Civil War. The Toronto Police operatives later turned to spying on the activities of the Fenians and filed reports to the Chief from as far as Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago and New York City. When in December 1864, the Canada West secret frontier police was established under Stipendiary Magistrate Gilbert McMicken, some of the Toronto Police agents were reassigned to this new agency. [6]

In the 1870s, as the Fenian threat began to gradually wane and the Victorian moral reform movement gained momentum, the Toronto Police primarily functioning in the role of “urban missionaries” whose function it was to regulate unruly and immoral behavior among the "lower classes." The Toronto Police were almost entirely focused on arresting drunks, prostitutes, disorderlies, and violators of Toronto’s ultra-strict Sunday “blue law.”[7]

In the days before public social services, the Toronto Police functioned as a social services mega-agency. Prior the creation of the Toronto Humane Society in 1887 and the Children’s Aid Society in 1891, the Toronto Police oversaw animal and child welfare, including the enforcement of child support payments. The police operated the city's ambulance service and acted as the Board of Health. Police stations at the time were designed with space for the housing of homeless, as no other public agency in Toronto dealt with this problem. Shortly before the Great Depression, in 1925, the Toronto Police housed 16,500 homeless people that year.

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The Toronto Police regulated street-level business: cab drivers, street vendors, corner grocers, tradesmen, rag men, junk dealers, laundry operators. Under public order provisions, the Toronto Police was responsible for the licensing and regulation of dance halls, pool halls, theaters, and later movie houses. It was responsible for censoring the content of not only theatrical performances and movies, but of all literature in the city ranging from books and magazines to posters and advertising.

The Toronto Police was also used to supress labour movements which were perceived as anarchist threats. The establishment of the Toronto Police mounted unit is directly related to the four-month Toronto streetcar strike of 1886, when authorities called on the Governor General's Horse Guard Regiment to assist in supressing the strike.

As for serious criminal investigations, the Toronto Police frequently (but not always) contracted with private investigators from the Pinkerton’s Detective Agency until the early 20th Century when crime fighting became the primary function of the department.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Toronto Police under Chief Dennis "Deny" Draper returned to its function as an agency to supress political dissent. Its notorious "Red Squad" brutally dispersed demonstrations by labor unions and by unemployed and homeless people during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Suspicious of "foreigners", the police lobbied the City of Toronto to pass legislation banning public speeches in languages other than English, curtailing union organization among Toronto vast immigrant populations working in sweat shops.

After several scandals, including a call by Chief Draper to have reporters "shot" and his being arrested driving drunk, the City appointed a new Police Chief from its own ranks for the first time in the department's history: John Chisholm, a very able senior police inspector. Unfortunately Chisholm was not up to the politics of the Chief's office, especially in facing off with Fred "Big Daddy" Gardiner who engineered almost single-handedly the formation of Metropolitan Toronto in the 1950s. When the Toronto City Police absorbed the surrounding police departments and grew in size and complexity, Chisholm found himself unable to manage the huge agency and its Byzantine politics. In 1958, after a number of conflicts with Gardiner and members of the newly expanded Metro Board of Police Commissioners, Chief Chisholm drove to High Park on the city's west end, parked his car and committed suicide with his service revolver. The late Staff Superintendent Jack Webster, one of the officers who arrived at the scene of the Chief's death and who would upon his retirement in the 1990s become the Force Historian at the Toronto Police Museum, would later write, “Suicide is a constant partner in every police car.”

With the creation of Metro Toronto in 1953, the Toronto Police was eventually merged on January 1, 1957 with the other municipal forces to form the Metro Toronto Police. In 1998 the Toronto Police Service was formed from Metro Toronto Police after the amalgamation of the former municipalities of Metro Toronto.

Today, the Toronto Police Service is responsible for overall local police service in Toronto and works along side with the other emergency services (EMS and Toronto Fire) and other police forces in the GTA including:

Command

The chief of police is the highest ranking officer of the Toronto Police Service. Most chiefs have been chosen amongst the ranks of Toronto force and prompted from the ranks of deputy chief.

Chiefs of the Toronto police force have been:

Operations

Toronto Police Headquarters is on College Street near Bay Street in the downtown area. The former HQ at Jarvis Street was turned into a museum (and since re-located to current HQ). The current site was once home to the Toronto YMCA.

The Toronto Police Service is divided into 2 field areas and 17 divisions (police stations or precincts):

Central Field, 75 Eglinton Av. W. commands the staions in the downtown area and former City of York:

  • 11 Division, 209 Mavety St.
  • 12 Division, 200 Trethewey Dr.
  • 13 Division, 1435 Eglinton Av. W.
  • 14 Division, 150 Harrison St.
  • 51 Division, 51 Parliament St.
  • 52 Division, 255 Dundas St. W.
  • 53 Division, 75 Eglinton Av. W.
  • 54 Division, 41 Cranfield Rd.
  • 55 Division, 101 Coxwell Av.

Area Field, 30 Ellerslie Av. commands stations of North York, Etobicoke, East York and Scarborough:

  • 22 Division, 3699 Bloor St. W.
  • 23 Division, 2126 Kipling Av.
  • 31 Division, 40 Norfinch Dr.
  • 32 Division, 30 Ellerslie Av.
  • 33 Division, 50 Upjohn Rd.
  • 41 Division, 2222 Eglinton Av. E.
  • 42 Division, 242 Milner Av. E.
  • 43 Division

Support units in the Toronto Police Service form the operational support structure and consists of:

  • Communications Services
  • Community Liaison
  • Community Programs
  • Court Services
  • Emergency Task Force
  • Marine
  • Mounted and Police Dog Services
  • Parking Enforcement
  • Public Safety
  • Traffic Services

Manpower

The Toronto Police Service has approximately 5,100 uniformed officers and 2,500 civilians employees.

Fleet

  • Ford Crown Victoria cruisers
  • Chevy Impala cruisers
  • Marine Launch 1

Ranking

The Toronto Police Service ranking structure is similar to the military ranks and some from police service from the United Kingdom.

Commanding Officers Besides the Chief of Police, the other command officers are the Deputy Chiefs. They head the command units:

  • Divisional Policing - Kim Derry (current)
  • Executive - Jane Dick (current)
  • Human Resouces - Keith Forde (current)
  • Specialized Policing - Anthony Warr (current)

The Chief Administrive Officer is a non-ranking and civilian post, currently headed by Frank Chen.

Police Senior Officers

The day-to-day and regional operations are commanded by senior officers:

  • Staff Superintendent
  • Superintendent
  • Staff Inspector
  • Inspector
  • Staff Sergeant
  • Sergeant

Police Officers

  • Constable - first class

Training

New and current officers of the Toronto Police Service train at the Charles O. Bick College (former Judge and Police Services chairman) on Finch Avenue East and Brimley Road. Recruit to the TPS are also trained at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, Ontario.

The current police college will re-locate near the Humber College's south campus in southern Etobicoke. The College is also home to the memorial for slain PC Tood Baylis.

Current Events

The TPS has been faced with a recent rise in shootings across Toronto which have raised concerns amongst citizens. Chief Blair and Mayor David Miller have been advocating for more resouces and asking patience from residents as they work to resolve the recent events. Ontario Premier Dalton McGunity has promised to work with Toronto to fight crime. Miller has blamed the importation of guns from the USA for the increase in shooting related crimes. The black community is fearful the police will target blacks in what is referred to as racial profiling. In the wake of the shootings, Toronto Councillor Michael Thompson appeared to call for the use of racial profiling by urging police to stop and search young black males as an effective means to fight gun crime but recently recanted, saying, "That's not something I would want. I think it's understood that this wasn't carefully thought out... I absolutely apologize for that."

The relations between blacks and Toronto Police have been strained over the years and will required more time to resolve their fears.

Another pressing issue is the concern of corrupt practices of some officers and their abuse of their powers. In 2004 an 2005, a number of officers have been charged. One case involved the son of former chief of police William J. McCormack.

Emergency Services

TPS is part of Toronto's Emergency Services and works along side with:

External links

North: York Regional Police
West: Peel Regional Police Peel Regional Police East: Durham Regional Police
South: Canadian Coast Guard
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