The understaffing of police divisions and declining morale within the force has hit a “crisis point” following the release of the Transformational Task Force’s report in January, said Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack.

"What they did with the Transformational Task Force is they said we are going to have this utopian model of policing in 2018 or 2019," McCormack said in an interview with CP24 on Monday. "Well that’s great in 2018 or 2019, but it’s 2017 right now."

According to the report, the action plan increases reliance on technology in a massive modernization effort, with a deadline of 2019 for the implementation of all 32 recommendations, which ultimately targets a change in policing culture within the force.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told CP24 last month that it will "take some time" to achieve the shift.

"I have always said that we need to change the model," Saunders said. "When you have a look at the pressures, when you have a look at the demographics, when you have a look at a whole host of things that are going on, you have to change the model in a fluid way."

But McCormack slammed this long-term plan when he met with Saunders on Monday morning, telling reporters “we need some immediate relief now” to address concerns about the lack of front-line officers throughout all divisions.

"We don’t have adequate staffing and workload to address that issue right now," he explained.

"We’re working in real-time in 2017 and what we’re seeing is officer burnout and stress levels like we’ve never seen."

He blames this “burnout” on the understaffing of front-line officers.

"Officers are going call-to-call because we’re only putting out often two or three vehicles for an entire division."

"We're putting out, in some divisions, two to three cars," he said. "That's four to six police officers for an entire shift."

On Friday night, he claims there was only one patrol car on duty in 31 Division, which serves the Jane and Finch area, between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.

"What I want to hear from the chief is where can we deploy, how can we get people back in the front line to give our people who are out there doing the most important job, the primary response unit, responding to the public, some relief and deal with it in 2017," he stated.

Meetings between McCormack and Saunders to tackle staffing issues will continue throughout the week.