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Toronto Police Service Reformation

Another "bad apple" who will not lose his job...

Toronto police officer charged in connection with sex trafficking investigation involving 16-year-old girl.

https://www.cp24.com/news/toronto-p...tigation-involving-16-year-old-girl-1.4981301

Police say that officers have been conducting an investigation into the sexual exploitation of the underage girl in the Pape and Cosburn avenues area since November.

In March, police say that they launched “Project One Six” in an effort to “identify, locate and arrest those who had purchased sexual services from the girl.”
 
Northern Light said:
Royson James on Saunders; and on the need for a bold new chief willing to back revolution, not just reform.

www.thestar.com

Opinion | Hiring Mark Saunders as police chief was a missed opportunity. His quitting is a rare second chance for Toronto to get it right

Toronto’s next police chief will be installed at a moment in history when the universe demands a revolution in policing, writes Royson James.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
Click to expand...

Royson James is one of the most pro status-quo columnist out there - in case he has forgotten, he endorsed Tory; and before that Lastman. Revolution? He ain't a party of that.

AoD
 
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tiffer24 said:
Witness video captures violent takedown of elderly black couple at GTA hospital.

An elderly Black couple are alleging that Durham Regional Police and staff at an Ajax, Ont., hospital, assaulted and abused them during a fall 2018 confrontation, and then tried to suppress video of the incident via threats of arrest and legal action.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/durham-police-hospital-abuse-allegation-1.5613304
Click to expand...

That's Durham Regional Police, the ones who helped to cover-up the Dafonte Miller beating.
 
Nothing fuels my confidence in the system like police delivering 4 elbows to an elderly man's head! (sarcasm)

But seriously, police departments, no matter how many TikTok accounts you make to "Humanize the Badge", we aren't stupid, we won't just suddenly think that police brutality is over. Instead of making obvious P.R. moves, how about actually making change.
 
Good column from John Lorinc of Spacing.

It discusses the specifics of how mental health calls are addressed; and looks back to the last comprehensive review which suggested a major expansion of the Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams (officer with psychiatric nurse), and a shift in their mandate to inform them of every applicable call and use them as first responsders wherever possible.

So far as he can discern, these recommendations were mostly ignored.

spacing.ca

LORINC: Police can't find road to reform even when given a map - Spacing Toronto

Would Regis Korchinski-Paquet be alive today if the Toronto Police Service (TPS) had adopted the recommendations of a sweeping 2014 review of its flawed approach to dealing with emotionally distressed individuals? This, to my mind, is a critical question in the broader debate over the size of...
spacing.ca
 
Northern Light said:
Good column from John Lorinc of Spacing.

It discusses the specifics of how mental health calls are addressed; and looks back to the last comprehensive review which suggested a major expansion of the Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams (officer with psychiatric nurse), and a shift in their mandate to inform them of every applicable call and use them as first responsders wherever possible.

So far as he can discern, these recommendations were mostly ignored.

spacing.ca

LORINC: Police can't find road to reform even when given a map - Spacing Toronto

Would Regis Korchinski-Paquet be alive today if the Toronto Police Service (TPS) had adopted the recommendations of a sweeping 2014 review of its flawed approach to dealing with emotionally distressed individuals? This, to my mind, is a critical question in the broader debate over the size of...
spacing.ca
Click to expand...

Of course they were ignored. We got grey police cruisers to show for instead (and somehow that's more of a priority).

AoD
 
Interesting...

'Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over': iPhone shortcut helps discreetly record the police

See link.

By saying, "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over," the shortcut -- which a user must first install themselves -- will pause any music that you're playing, turn down the brightness of your phone, turn on the "Do Not Disturb" mode to block any incoming calls, open up your front-facing camera and start a video recording.
Click to expand...

It also sends a message to a predesignated contact, letting them know that you're being pulled over and where your current location is. Once you stop the recording, it sends a copy of the video to a predesignated contact and gives you the option to send it to your iCloud or Dropbox.
Click to expand...

The "Police" shortcut was first created back in 2018 by Redditor Robert Petersen, but it has been recently updated to fix any bugs and is now called the "I'm being pulled over" shortcut.

"I just wanted a way for anyone to have proof of their version of events in the unlikely scenario that something unexpected happens during a police interaction," Petersen told CNN affiliate KCTV last year. "And if 1 in 10,000 people find my shortcut useful at all I'd be glad."

The shortcut received attention when it launched two years ago, but it's been getting more traction on social media due to the overwhelming call for police reform spurred by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Click to expand...

How to download it ​
There are a few steps you'll need to do to install the shortcut.​
​
Step 1: To set it up, first download the "Shortcuts" app on your iPhone.​
​
Step 2: Then you have to run another shortcut in the Shortcuts app. If you tap "Gallery" on the bottom right corner, you will see other shortcuts you can run.​
​
Step 3: Next, go to settings, and scroll down to "Shortcuts." Tap it and then toggle the "Allow Untrusted Shortcuts" to on.​
​
Step 4: Open this link in Safari to download the "I'm getting pulled over" shortcut. Tap "Get Shortcut."​
​
Step 5: Once it opens, scroll down and tap "Add Untrusted Shortcut."​
​
Step 6: Choose a contact(s) for who you would like to send your location and a copy of the video recording to. Then tap done.​
 
There were several initiatives that could be moved out of the control of the police. For example, speed traps (cameras), red light infractions (again cameras), construction duty (could be done by security guards or construction workers), etc.

School crossing guards used to be operated by Toronto Police before being transferred directly to the City of Toronto in 2019.
 
W. K. Lis said:
There were several initiatives that could be moved out of the control of the police. For example, speed traps (cameras), red light infractions (again cameras), construction duty (could be done by security guards or construction workers), etc.

School crossing guards used to be operated by Toronto Police before being transferred directly to the City of Toronto in 2019.
Click to expand...

Perhaps. Traffic cameras charge the owner rather than the driver and they obviously only work where they are installed. Traffic control and construction sites, movie shoots, etc. are paid duty (extra duty) paid by the requestor. If it is a publicly funded project, the cost gets rolled into the overall cost of the project. I have been told, but cannot confirm, that insurers demand police traffic control. There is a legal issue that could possibly resolved by legislation (authority to control traffic outside of a designated construction zone). I don't know if it exists anyplace else but this could be a good opportunity for a government-regulated private company. The State of New York licences private companies to do permit (oversize, etc.) vehicle escorts.
 
From today's BLM protests, the release of 27 'demands'.

Side Tangent - I had to look this up myself since not one media outlet I surveyed posted all the demands or a link to them. Argh, sloppy journalism!

Defund the Police — Black Lives Matter Canada

blacklivesmatter.ca blacklivesmatter.ca

WE DEMAND:

DEFUND THE POLICE
  1. Immediately redirect a minimum of 50 percent of the $1.1 billion TPS budget toward the communities they have devastated by investing in secure, long-term housing for street-involved and unhoused communities, food security programs, public transit, public health, public libraries, and community-led anti-violence programs.
DEMILITARIZE THE POLICE
  1. End Emergency Task Force (ETF) and Emergency Response Teams (ERT) (similar to the US-based SWAT teams), tactical squads, military grade weapons, and surveillance equipment.
  2. Remove all weaponry from police and other law enforcement, including tasers, batons, firearms, rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, and sound canons.
  3. End the mass surveillance of our communities through the use of technologies such as stingray, facial recognition, and predictive policing technologies, drones, robots, and G20 surveillance technology that remained in Toronto.
REMOVE COPS IN SCHOOLS
  1. Remove police and school resource officers (SROs) in all schools (Public, Catholic, Private, and Post-Secondary) in Toronto.
  2. Remove police and school resource officers (SROs) in all schools, at all levels, across Canada.
REDUCE SCOPE OF POLICE
  1. End all special constable programs and all policing on campuses.
  2. End the policing of public transportation.
  3. End the policing of minor bylaw infractions and noise complaints.
  4. End paid-duty policing program (officers for hire by developers, street festivals, etc.).
  5. End police collaboration with the CBSA.
  6. Eliminate all stealth police cars and plainclothes operations.
  7. Eliminate community policing patrols in highly racialized communities.
  8. End Carding
DOCUMENT POLICE VIOLENCE
  1. Mandate the public collection of data regarding police killing, and incidents of police brutality for all local, regional, provincial, and Federal police or law enforcement agency disaggregated by race, gender, age and citizenship.
DECRIMINALIZE POVERTY, DRUGS, HIV & SEX WORK
  1. Release and expunge record for all poverty-related charges (including bylaw infractions, solicitation, sleeping outside, public urination, loitering, solicitation).
  2. Decriminalize drugs, sex work, and HIV status.
  3. Release and expunge records of all drug-related and sex work charges.
CREATE ALTERNATIVES
  1. Create Crisis Intervention and Mad co-lead support teams; work with communities to develop models that work for them.
  2. Create police-free, community-led, trauma-informed emergency service for mental health/psychiatric distress and other forms of crisis.
  3. Invest in community support for shelters, drop-ins, after-school programming in low-income, Black, and Indigenous neighborhoods.
  4. Create restorative services, mental health services, and community-run health centres
  5. Invest in harm reduction, including safe supply, safe injection/inhalation sites, and harm-reduction outreach workers.
  6. Establish a community-based and trauma-informed emergency service for people who have experienced gender-based violence.
  7. Implement of civilian transportation safety service and better/safer road infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists and public transit
  8. Create a civilian conflict resolution resolution service to replace policing of minor bylaw infractions/noise complaints
  9. Provide permanent, secure housing options for all people who need housing.
 
I think these protesters need to understand that to a lot of the public getting rid of a lot of this stuff would make them feel less safe.

Like just because you fight for a morally right cause doesn't mean you can you can't be stupid.

Like select Fearless Ideas are perhaps worth pursuing

Like a lot of these Anti police protesters I would say are more in line with anarchists who generally have this idea that human beings are good creatures and as a result if left to fend for themselves all will be well.
 
Jasmine18 said:
I think these protesters need to understand that to a lot of the public getting rid of a lot of this stuff would make them feel less safe.

Like just because you fight for a morally right cause doesn't mean you can you can't be stupid.

Like select Fearless Ideas are perhaps worth pursuing

Like a lot of these Anti police protesters I would say are more in line with anarchists who generally have this idea that human beings are good creatures and as a result if left to fend for themselves all will be well.
Click to expand...

There are a few ideas there that are non-starters.

But there are a great many you and most people should be able to get behind.

Especially those in the 'alternatives' section.

There really is no need for police or police-like (special constable) officers to addressing routine by-law offences and noise complaints unless there is some tangible reason to believe the situation is high-risk.

There really is no need to have police routinely in schools.

Nor do police or S.C.'s need to be handling fare enforcement for transit.

That's all just overkill, and expensive.

I also favour decriminalization of simple drug possession; and public intoxication. The system Portugal has had in place for years for the former seems quite effective and reasonable.

One is issued a ticket/summons; and attend a hearing of sorts and is given a choice to go into treatment (at state expense); or to pay a fine.

I would likewise favour decriminalization and/or legalization of sex work. Providing we are discussing consenting adults I don't see why its the state's business to harass people.

Some of other other 'demands' are more problematic either outright or in degree.

I can't see a 50% budget cut being in the offing for police; the suggesting of terminating all under cover work seems problematic and I don't know how you tackle gun smuggling if your prohibit cooperation with the CBSA.

Still, there's lots there to work with to make policing more responsible and focused.

I do wish the group had edited the list more tightly; as written it will cause too many people to tune out the more reasonable ideas in it.
 
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Well yes Toronto is a city growing by 80,000 people a year and the issue is we have police call times that are crazy ridiculous.


So if you tell people we need to reduce the budget by 50%, they will be um... what
 
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