Police Board to meet June 27, 2019 at Toronto City Hall

TORONTO:  The next scheduled meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board will take place on Thursday June 27, 2019 at 1:30 PM in Committee Room 2, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St. West (please note the change in location from Police Headquarters).  Copies of the agenda are available on the Board’s website at www.tpsb.ca, from the Board office and limited copies will be available at the meeting.

The Board meeting may be viewed via LiveStream on YouTube using the following link: https://youtu.be/z4nlwZZXlSs.
 
Those members of the public who would like to make a deputation to the Board regarding an item on the agenda should refer to the Notice for Making a Deputation at this link.

Items of interest include:

COLLECTIVE IMPACT APPROACH TO COMMUNITY VIOLENCE
The Board will receive a report from Board Staff recommending the approval of funding for a proposal entitled “Collective Impact Approach to Community Violence” from the Board’s Special Fund.  The proposal is a joint submission from the Alexandra Park Community Centre, the Ontario Justice Education Network, the City of Toronto, and the Toronto Police Service’s Community Partnerships & Engagement Unit and Guns & Gangs Unit. The project aims to train and empower local residents with crucial information around community safety, the provincial street checks regulation, available City resources and supports, and the Service’s Neighbourhood Officer Program. The project proposal is premised on a collective impact approach to building capacity of its participants to understand the role of police officers in the community so they can be seen as a supportive resource to community members.

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER – NEW JOB DESCRIPTION
The Board will receive a report from the Chief with respect to a new job description for the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Toronto Police Service.  As the report notes, the CIO will be a civilian member of the Command Team, and will be responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership for all technology strategy and management across the Toronto Police Service.  The report also states that having the right level of leadership will be fundamental to the future success of Information Technology Services and its ability to champion and support a challenging modernization agenda. 

ANNUAL REPORT ON TRAINING
The Board will consider a report from the Chief regarding the 2018 Annual Report on the Service’s training programs.  This is a detailed report on the effectiveness of police training which provides an overview of Toronto Police College operations and services and describes the results of an effectiveness study conducted on three courses delivered or sponsored by members of the College; 1. Conducted Energy Weapon Expansion; 2. Internet Facilitated Investigations; and 3. Safe Skills-Police Vehicle Operations.  As the report notes, this study focused on the transfer of knowledge acquired during the training to field units and its impact on the Service. and the community.

QUARTERLY REPORT ON CONDUCTED ENERGY WEAPON USE
The Board will consider a report from the Chief regarding the quarterly report for Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) use from November 15, 2018 to February 14, 2019.  The report reviews data in a number of areas, including types of use, CEW effectiveness, and types of use in persons in crisis.  The report also addresses other areas, such as input from consumer survivor groups, including the Board’s Mental Health Sub-Committee, over-reliance or misuse of CEWs and the steps taken to remedy such issues, whether use of force overall increases with the expanded availability of CEWs and the number of officers trained in the three-day de-escalation training in the last year.  The report notes that while the data demonstrates that the use of CEWs by police constables (PCs) is greater than that of supervisors, this is an expected outcome of the expansion as PCs respond to more calls for service than supervisors and are faced with more situations involving arrests and apprehensions.  The report also notes that PCs used demonstrated force presence, where the CEW is simply displayed, in 76.5% of incidents where they felt that the use of a CEW was the most viable and least injurious force option.

Contact: Sandy Murray
sandy.murray@tpsb.ca
416-808-8090