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The Toronto Police Service (TPS), formerly the Metropolitan Toronto Police, is the local police force for the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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.")*

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.*

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.*

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.[http://www.russianbooks.org/crime/cph5.htm

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. *

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.”*

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.

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 suppress 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 suppressing 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 suppress 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 (Scarborough, Etobicoke, North York Police Departments) 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:

Funding

As a division of the municipal government of Toronto, the Toronto Police Service's annual funding level is established by a vote of the Toronto City Council in favour of the year's proposed budget. Provided below are historical gross and net funding levels of the TPS as a part of the city's operating budgets.

Toronto Police Service funding as per municipal operating budgets
Year Gross Amount % of Year's Gross Budget Net Amount % of Year's Net Budget
1999 $540,978,000 9.7% $522,900,000 20.3%
2004 $707,573,000 10.6% $679,112,000 23.3%

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 promoted from the ranks of deputy chief.

Chiefs of the Toronto police force have been:

Toronto Police Department

Toronto Police Department (up to 1953) and Metro Toronto Police (up to 1998)

Metro Toronto Police (up to 1998) and Toronto Police Service (1998 onwards)

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 stations 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 4331 Lawrence Ave. E near Morningside Avenue (division was merged with 42 in 1989)

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

Policing on most 400-series highways (like King's Highways 401, 400, 427, 404) are in the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police. Toronto Police is responsible for patrolling on local highways (Allen Road, Don Valley Parkway, F.G. Gardiner Expressway and the Toronto section of Highway 409).

Marine Unit was initially known as the Toronto Lifesaving & Harbour Patrol in 1912 and renamed Toronto Harbour Police. The Toronto Harbour Police merged with the Metro Police in 1982 to become the Metro Toronto Marine Unit. In 1998 it was renamed again as the Toronto Police Marine Unit. The current unit consists of 50 officers and 15 boats.

Manpower

The Toronto Police Service has approximately 5,250 uniformed officers and 2,500 civilian employees.

Fleet

Cruisers

Most vehicles are numbered according to division, with first two digits identifying the division (e.g. 3233 is car 33 from 32 Division).

Motorcycles

Boats

TPS has a fleet of 15 boats including:

  • Marine Unit 1 - Volvo Penta Turbo Chargd 350 hp engines and shared with Toronto EMS
  • Marine Unit 2 - patrol boat
  • Marine Unit 3 - patrol boat
  • Marine Unit 4 - patrol boat
  • Marine Unit 5 - patrol boat
  • 2 30-foot Zodiac Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) with twin 250-horsepower four-stroke motors
  • 1 airboat used for operating over ice

Support Vehicles

  • Chevrolet Express van - Commercial Vehicle Enforcement, Collision Reconstruction
  • GMC Savanna vans - Radio Services and Court Services
  • Chevrolet Suburban SUV - ETF, Marine Unit
  • Ford F350 - Mounted Unit
  • Ford Van - Explosive Disposal Unit
  • Ford Van - RIDE
  • GMC Safari - Parking Enforcement

Bikes

  • Norco or Aquila mountain bikes - Community Action Policing

Source: Toronto Police Vehicles

Mounted Unit

The horse unit was formed in 1886 and now stationed at the Horse Palace at the CNE.

The unit has a strength of 27 horses and 40 officers.

Horses killed while on duty:

Weapons

Glock 22 (first generation) - Regular officers

Ranks

The rank insignia of the Toronto Police Service is similar to that used by police services elsewhere in Canada and in the United Kingdom, except that the usual "pips" are replaced by maple leafs.

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 Resources - Keith Forde (current)
  • Specialized Policing - Anthony Warr (current)

The Chief Administrative Officer is a civilian post, currently held by Tony Veneziano.

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, second class, third class, fourth class

Toronto Police Service Rank Insignia
Senior officers
Chief of Police
Deputy Chief of Police
Superintendent
Staff Sergent or Sergent
Officers
Constables

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 Todd Baylis.

Current events

For most of 2005, the Toronto Police Association (the union) and the Toronto Police Services Board (the civilian governing body) were involved in lengthy contract negotiations. The Toronto police had been without a contract since the end of 2004. The police conducted a work-to-rule campaign in the fall of 2005. The police force is an essential service and are legally prohibited from striking. As part of the work-to-rule, officers wore baseball caps with the union insignia and mock turtlenecks, as well as responding primarily only to radio calls and dramatically reducing the number of tickets issued. In October the police union planned a rally in front of city hall to publicize their demands. Although police chief Bill Blair expressly forbade officers from wearing uniforms to the rally, several dozen officers disobeyed. They were subsequently disciplined. In December the city avoided arbitration by settling the contract dispute which was approved by police members.

In 2005, the police force has been faced with a spike in shootings across Toronto and increased concern among residents. Chief Blair and Mayor David Miller have been advocating for additional resources and asking for diligence from residents to contend with this issue. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has promised to work with Toronto to fight crime. Miller has blamed the illegal importation of guns from the U.S. for the city's increase in gun-related crimes. The black community, whose relations with the Toronto police have been somewhat strained for years, is fearful they will be targeted by the police through racial profiling. In the wake of the shootings, Toronto Councillor Michael Thompson called for the use of racial profiling by urging police to stop and search young black males as an effective means to fight gun crime; however, Thompson recanted shortly afterward, 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."

A coroner's inquest has begun into the police killing of 17-year-old Jeffrey Reodica two years ago. Reodica was shot and killed by a plainclothes Toronto police officer, Det.-Const. Dan Belanger, on May 21, 2004. In 2004, eight people were shot by Toronto police, six of them died from their wounds. The SIU investigated each shooting, but found all of them to be justified.

Emergency Services

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

External links

Municipal government of Toronto | Toronto Police Service

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Toronto Police Service".

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