It’s been quite the week. We’re in the middle of our November Council session, and I’ll share my signature highlights in the next E-Blast. Today, I want to update you on a meeting I attended earlier this week. On Tuesday, I presented an item at the Toronto Police Service Board meeting that I think will be good for all of us.
You may remember that I wrote a column back in September about the need to develop a multi-year staffing plan for our Police Service. Settling police funding is always the most challenging part of our City Budget process. A multi-year staffing strategy will help us understand the needs of our police force and plan accordingly to ensure they are able to keep Toronto safe effectively and affordably.
Last year at Budget time, I was not a member of the Police Service Board. As we head into the 2025 Budget process, I’ve been back on the Board for seven months now, having rejoined in April of this past year. This has given me the chance to work closely with our Police Chief and his command to better understand the needs of our Police Service. I’m happy to report that Chief Demkiw shares my belief in the multi-year staffing plan and we’ve been able to work together on a solution.
On Tuesday, I moved a Hiring Plan that passed with unanimous support at the Police Board. This plan is the product of deep collaboration with the Chief, his Chief Administrative Officer, and the City’s Chief Financial Officer. All of us needed to work together to consider the impacts of several hiring models. We looked at the options that were presented to the Board in August, plus a few more versions, to land on a model that’s the right fit for our city.
You may be wondering, “Why so much complexity? Isn’t it just a matter of dollars = officers?” That is certainly the biggest part of the equation, but there are a number of other factors at play. We need a certain number of new officers every year just to keep pace with our population growth, let alone account for retirements and potential enhancements to the service. It requires serious planning to ensure our “Cop-to-Pop” ratio stays consistent. Police services around the world use this ratio to represent the number of police officers per 100,000 people. Toronto is at the low end of this metric, with 168 officers per 100,000 residents.
If we want to improve that cop-to-pop ratio, we have to consider how many officers we can move through the Police College each year. Once officers graduate from the Police College, we also have to account for their hiring, training, and mentorship within the force to ensure they develop into excellent officers. All of these factors, each with their own timelines and costs, are precisely why we need a multi-year approach to hiring up. Chief Demkiw is leading one of the youngest forces in Toronto Police’s history due to retirement turnover, and he wants to make sure he gets it right.
So, here’s where we’ve landed with the Hiring Plan. For the next two years, the police budget will include the maximum annual training allocation set by the Province: four classes of 90 new officers each will move through the Police College in 2025, for a total of 360 new recruits. The financial pressure to reach uniform policing targets will have to be absorbed into other areas of police operation so that we can get officer complements up and response times down across our city. For three years after that, each budget must at minimum continue to meet the newly achieved cop-to-pop ratio. For instance, if the next two years of hiring bring us up to a ratio of 185 officers per 100,000 Torontonians, the next three budgets after that would have to allocate enough funds to maintain that ratio as our population rises. There may be further improvements to our cop-to-pop ratio as intergovernmental discussions continue.
So what does this mean for you? It means that City Hall and the Toronto Police Service Board are working together to get more officers on the ground in our neighbourhoods. We’re also ensuring there will be enough officers to compose special task forces, tackling issues like auto theft and hate crimes on a city-wide basis. I would also like to see a full complement in the Neighbourhood Officer Program, which has made significant strides in building positive relationships between the force and youth in particular.
My hope is that we can turn a page to a more collaborative relationship between Police leadership, on-the-ground officers, the Mayor and City Council, and you, our residents. I know that we need to keep working hard at the City to tackle the socioeconomic challenges that threaten safety in our neighbourhoods. At the same time, the Toronto Police Service needs to continue its work to build trust and partnership with communities across Toronto. The Multi-Year Hiring Plan is the first step in turning that page.