FAQ

The Board has specific legislated responsibilities under the Community Safety and Policing Act:

• provide adequate and effective policing in the area for which it has policing responsibility;
• employ members of the police service;
• appoint members of the police service as police officers;
• recruit and appoint the chief of police and any deputy chief of police and determine their remuneration and working conditions, taking their submissions into account;
• prepare and adopt a diversity plan to ensure that the members of the police service reflect the diversity of the area for which the board has policing responsibility;
• monitor the chief of police’s performance;
• conduct a review of the chief of police’s performance at least annually in accordance with the regulations made by the Minister, if any;
• monitor the chief of police’s decisions regarding the restrictions on secondary activities set out in section 89 and review the reports from the chief of police on those decisions;
• monitor the chief of police’s handling of discipline within the police service;
• ensure that any police facilities, including police lock-ups, owned by the board comply with the prescribed standards,
• prepare and adopt a strategic plan for the provision of policing, including, among other things, objectives, priorities and core functions of the police service;
• negotiate collective agreements; and
• approve the capital and operating budgets.

In addition, the Board is responsible for the creation of policies on a number of matters prescribed by the Act, any any other matters related to the police service or the provision of policing.

The Board is accountable to both the community and to the Inspector General of Policing. 

The Inspector General of Policing is a policing oversight body created under Ontario’s Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019. The Inspector General is responsible for ensuring policing is delivered adequately and effectively across Ontario and that police board members are complying with the Code of Conduct. The Inspector General exercises independent compliance oversight focused on ensuring police services, police service boards and board members, and special constable employers are complying with requirements under the CSPA for policing and police governance.

Members of the public can file complaints with the Inspector General concerning adequate and effective police service delivery, or allegations of police board member misconduct through the Inspectorate's website .

The Community Safety and Policing Act establishes the number of Board members in direct relation to the population of the area it represents.

The Board elects a Chair and Vice-Chair at its first meeting of each year. The timing and election of the Chair is legislated by the Community Safety and Policing Act.

The Toronto Police Services Board is the only Board in Ontario to be headed by a full time Chair. This position carries a salary of $90,963. Despite the increasing complexity of the position, the salary has not changed since 1987.

City of Toronto Councillors are not compensated for their work on the Board; rather, this service is seen as part of their regular duties.

Since 2006, the remuneration for a citizen Vice-Chair is a combination of an annual honorarium of $13,750 plus a per diem payment of $350 with a cap on total remuneration of $22,500 (representing 25 per diem payments for attendance at board and committee meetings, and for required training days); and the remuneration for other citizen members is a combination of an annual honorarium of $8,750 plus a per diem payment of $350 with a cap on total remuneration of $15,750 (representing 20 per diem payments for attendance at board and committee meetings, and for required training days).

Board Members are governed by a code of conduct.

How to apply to be on the Police Services Board

There are a number of ways you can become a Board member.
You can get appointed to the Board by

1. the Province,
2. the City of Toronto,
3. being the City of Toronto Mayor or designate,
4. being a City Councillor and elected by your fellow Councillors to serve on the Board.

The Community Safety and Policing Act  sets out who will be members of the Board. In Toronto, it states that three members will be appointed by the provincial government; one member will be the Mayor of Toronto (or, if the mayor chooses not to, a City of Toronto Councillor selected by the City of Toronto Council); two members will be City of Toronto Councillors and one member will be a citizen selected by the City of Toronto Council.

To serve the Board with legal documents, please contact us in advance by email or by phone at 416-808-8080, to ensure we will be able to accept the documents at our offices located at Toronto Police Headquarters at 40 College Street.