Toronto Police understaffed and officers 'burned out', union says

The number of Toronto police officers quitting the force is at the highest level seen in five years, according to data obtained by CBC Toronto.

As of Dec. 11, 86 uniformed police officers resigned from the force in 2017, with more than half of the officers who left opting to join another police force. 

The police service, which doesn't conduct exit interviews, says that's due in part to aggressive recruitment plans from neighbouring forces, but the union representing police disagree.

The union, which conducts exit interviews with departing officers, says the departures are due to low morale and staffing shortages putting unnecessary pressure on front-line officers. 

"We are past burning out, we are burned out," said Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association. 

Toronto Police open to hiring more officers

Toronto Police, which currently has around 5,000 uniformed officers, says it is working to replace officers leaving the force.

"The chief has committed to hiring more members," said police spokesperson Meaghan Gray, in a written statement to CBC Toronto. She said the service is hiring 80 new officers — 20 by the end of 2017 and an another 60 in the new year. 

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But the union said it won't make up for the losses.  

"The reality is they have 80 new officers hired that will be on the street in 2019," said McCormack.

"So far this year for January and February I have another 41 uniformed police officers leaving. What kind of policing is this?"

Safety a concern for some officers

The union says minimum staffing requirements are not always met, causing some officers to feel unsafe at work.

In an internal email sent earlier this month obtained by CBC Toronto, one officer said he felt he was put "at risk" in 55 Division as the only car on patrol on a Tuesday afternoon.

"I officially (for the first time in my career) do no feel safe as a police officer, and am tired with the politics of the service and upper management," the officer wrote. 

"Our lives are on the lines, and the service doesn't care until something bad happens." 

Data from the Toronto Police Service show that short-staffing the union is concerned about isn't contained to one division. In a four-week period from Oct. 30 to Nov. 26 of this year, nine of the force's 17 divisions had more than 50 per cent of their shifts understaffed. 

In that same period, in order to meet the minimum staffing requirements, Toronto Police would have had to call in people to cover an additional 1,510 shifts.

That means to meet its staffing needs Toronto Police would have to foot the bill for thousands of overtime hours, or hire additional officers. 

"This is putting people at risk and that's where the buck has to stop," said McCormack. "We have a duty to report and say what's happening and what's going on in the city."

Front-line officers a priority, chief says

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said front-line officers are a priority as the force moves toward modernization. Part of that initiative is taking low-threshold calls like thefts under $5,000 away from trained police officers, relying on other tools and a support unit staffed by civilians.

"We're looking at enhancing these things so we can reduce the pressures off the front-line officers. The answer is not putting more bodies into play," Saunders said in an interview Tuesday with CBC Toronto's Dwight Drummond. 

This year the force rolled out the Criminal Investigations Support Unit, which has civilian staff work with police to assist in daily duties. Since the end of May, the CSIU in 42 Division has completed 2,800 calls for service and submitted approximately 900 general occurrences, according to data from Toronto Police.

In that division, the move has accounted for approximately 3,892 officer hours that can now be spent on other duties, the force said. 

"We have to start thinking differently, we have to start rolling out differently and we have to starting learning how to perform differently when it comes to the task that we're doing right now," Saunders said.