A consultant’s report on reducing the cost of policing in Toronto calls for a temporary reduction on overtime pay and non-essential promotions and raises the possibility of eventually outsourcing some jobs and shifting to a community-based policing model that will lessen the need for cruisers.

The KPMG report, which was released on Thursday ahead of a TPS board meeting, was commissioned at a cost of $200,000 and provides ideas on how to modernize policing while ultimately reducing a budget that in 2016 will surpass $1 billion for the first time.

The 64-page report outlines a total of 16 different areas where cost savings could be realized. Those areas of focus are broken into short-term (less than a year), medium-term (one to two years) and long term (more than two years).

Some of the short-term cost-savings measures outlined by the report include deferring non-essential overtime pay and salary promotions and introducing a freeze on capital spending while a third-party review is conducted on major projects. The report also seems to raise the possibility of selling some TPS property down the line, noting that the review would have the long-term purpose of determining “which holdings should be kept, sold, consolidated and/or shared with partner agencies.”

Outsourcing of some TPS functions proposed

In addition to a range of recommendations on cost-cutting through the deferment or elimination of some expenses, the report also takes a close look at outsourcing.

In the medium-term, the report advocates exploring the feasibility of outsourcing court security and parking enforcement, noting that the latter could result in annual savings of about $30 million. Meanwhile, in the long-term, the report says that the TPS could realize further savings by either outsourcing its human resources and information technology departments or sharing those functions with other police agencies or city departments.

The report also raises the possibility of the civilianization of many roles. For example, it says that police in San Francisco have hired 16 civilians to focus on property crimes while police in Denver plan to hire 40 civilians over the next two years to take phone reports and conduct field reports.

About 30 per cent of TPS employees are currently civilians while the rest are uniformed personnel.

“The TPS has made progress in civilianizing roles outside a typical support function, however there is potentially more that can be done to free up officer time for core service responsibilities and proactive policing,” the report states.

Fewer officers in cruisers

The report is littered with references to installing a more “community-based policing model” and makes the case that by doing so the TPS could improve its effectiveness and save money.

As part of that approach, the report recommends that the TPS look into “the consolidation of divisions and establishment of strategic hubs to deploy officers more effectively.”

The report also points out that the TPS should in the long-term have more of its officers operating without a cruiser.

Though the exact savings from that aren’t clear, the report notes that the TPS does spend $32.5 million a year on its vehicle fleet.

Furthermore, the report states that some police agencies have been able to reduce the size of their vehicle fleet by 20 to 30 per cent by having more officers walking the beat and improving the tracking and scheduling of cruisers to boost their utilization.

Police union head says report offers nothing new

The KPMG report was submitted to the TPS board more than a year ago but is only seeing the light of day now, about a month after former chair Alok Mukherjee raised questions over why it hadn’t played a role in budget discussions.

Speaking with CP24 about the report, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack said it includes some items that warrant further discussion but nothing that hasn’t already been considered.

“It is really not a report; it is a document containing several concepts with no analysis of data, with no analysis of costs and with no analysis of what the impact would be of some of these recommendations,” he said. “This is a concept without any sort of foundation.”

Though McCormack said his union will oppose the proposals around outsourcing some positions he said that they will likely support some of the other items, notably the shift away from the use of rigid geography based police divisions.

“It is not about closing divisions; it is about looking at deployment, patrol areas and having the right amount of police officers in the right areas at the right time. That is something we are open to,” he said.

McCormack also added that a reduction in overtime “may be something” that could work provided that the TPS has proper deployment and shift models in place.

Board to discuss report next Thursday

The TPS board is expected to discuss the report at their meeting next Thursday.

Mayor John Tory has not yet commented on the contents of the report, though last month he did tell reporters that it would “take some time to implement” due to the complicated nature of many of the proposals.

Discussing the road forward with CP24 earlier on Wednesday, city councillor and TPS board member Shelly Carroll said it really just boils down to leveraging technology and freeing officers up to serve the public in a different way.

“As soon as you build your next police division (headquarters) you have to put about 100 bodies in there just to run the administration so we want a really tech based police service and we also know that we have to get away from appearances in court and that sort of thing,” she said. “By getting to the point that we are using the technology you (officers) can do that on the street and go back to being neighbourhood beat cops, which is good for the community.

Here are some of the other highlights of the report:

  • Modernizing the Toronto Police College by utilizing more civilian employees and reducing the need for instructor time with an enhanced reliance on e-learning.
  • Examine the possibility of partnering with other police agencies on equipment procurement in order to reduce costs.
  • Consider investments in new technological systems as a way to ultimately reduce costs. Specifically the report mentions a program used in Western Australia and the UK which allows victims to log on to a secure site to check the status of their investigation and communicate with the officer in charge.

Remember for instant breaking news follow @cp24 on Twitter.