Toronto police board approves 'unprecedented' 5-year hiring plan for force

The Toronto Police Services Board unanimously approved a new five-year hiring plan for the force on Tuesday.

The plan provides the Toronto Police Service and the City of Toronto with an "unprecedented" commitment to hiring as a new budget cycle approaches, according to Coun. Shelley Carroll and Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw.

The board would provide the police with provincial training funds to graduate four classes of 90 new officers in each of 2025 and 2026, guaranteeing the force the maximum number of police officers that can be hired over the next two years.

The board would make more investments in the following three years, 2027 to 2029, to improve the police to population ratio based on available funding.

Carroll, a member of the police services board, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the motion deals with what is known as the "cop-to-pop" ratio, a figure that measures the number of police officers per 100,000 population in Toronto. 

"For years, I have watched us have the kind of conversation where we argue about the whole budget, and at the end of the process, it comes down to how many officers you get," said Carroll, who moved the motion.

"That should be the first part of the conversation. That's what is different here this year. Let's decide what we want to be happening in our communities, what forces we want on the ground, and then we'll figure out how we surround them with the supports they need and stay within a target."

Carroll said the motion is the start of the police budget process and the commitment to increase the police to population ratio should come as good news to the city. 

Demkiw said at the news conference that the city had a ratio of more than 200 police officers per 100,000 people in Toronto and that ratio is now down to low 160s. He called the hiring plan "historic."

"In my entire time as a police officer, I do not recall the time when we had this level of certainty going toward the end of a budget cycle and particularly having certainty beyond one year. We typically budget year-to-year," he said.

The plan also directs Demkiw to ask the provincial and federal governments for money to improve the ratio of police officers to residents in the city.

Demkiw says he will present the full budget to the board in December for consideration.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Demkiw added: "Today is a good day and a step towards building in hiring certainty for our members, and very importantly, for the safety of our city."