The Toronto Police Service board will form a task force to consider a number of reports on modernizing policing, including a recent study by KPMG that proposes a series of radical changes aimed at reducing the TPS’s growing budget.
The KPMG report, which was released to the public last week, 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 highlights of the 64-page report include:
- Temporarily cutting back on overtime
- Outsourcing some jobs
- Introducing a freeze on capital spending
- Shifting to a community-based policing model that will lessen the need for cruisers in the long-term
The study, which cost taxpayers $200,000, was completed more than a year ago but was only formally tabled at the Toronto Police Services board on Thursday, meaning that its recommendations won’t be considered as part of the 2016 budget process.
“These things take time. Has this taken longer than it should? Yes it has. But we are now going to get on with this to the point that you heard me specifically insist as a board member that I want to see specific recommendations for inclusion in next year’s budget,” Mayor John Tory told reporters following Thursday’s board meeting. “I understand the need to get on with these things but I don’t think you could name me too much out of that report that could be implemented tomorrow morning and allow us to reduce the 2016 budget.”
The task force, which was approved by the board on Thursday, will be chaired by Police Chief Mark Saunders and TPS board chair Andy Pringle and will include a combined maximum of 12 service members and subject matter experts.
The mandate of the task force will be to examine all reports over the last five years dealing with organizational change and potential efficiency measures. According to a motion passed by the TPS board on Thursday, the task force will be charged with making recommendations on how “to modernize the structure and service delivery of the Toronto Police Service” and to deliver services “more efficiently and effectively.”
The task force will report back to the board with its interim recommendations in June before delivering a final report by December.
Speaking with reporters at Toronto Police headquarters on College Street, Tory said the formation of the task force illustrates just how serious the TPS board is about reducing a police budget, which will exceed $1 billion for the first time in 2016.
Tory, however, refused to provide a ballpark number for the value of cuts he’d like to see made to the police budget, noting that it would be inappropriate to prejudge the process.
“We are committed to making the changes that are necessary to stop the growth in police budgets and to more effectively and efficiently deploy highly-trained police officers to fight crime and work with the community,” he said.
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