Public Safety committee  Thank you very much.

Public Safety committee  I've been exposed a little bit to this committee's work. I had a chance to go online and read the presentations by Dale McFee, our police board chair Alok Mukherjee, and Tom Stamatakis from the Canadian Police Association. By virtue of your convening these meetings, exposing yourselves to some outstanding police leaders like Chief Hanson, I think you're doing yourselves a great service.

Public Safety committee  I'm not sure, Chief, but I remember who the commissioner of the day was.

Public Safety committee  I'm not sure if they are still doing it. When I was doing research back in the 1990s, looking for best practices on this type of training, I was led to the RCMP Depot and saw those two examples. Whether they have continued that since then or have it in place now, I would suggest asking the RCMP.

Public Safety committee  I think the best example of a recruit training program existed in the mid 1990s. The RCMP brought recruits into their “Depot”—I think it was only for one or two classes. Before they gave them a uniform, before they issued the baton, handcuffs, gun, bullets, before they gave them any Criminal Code statutes or anything else related to provincial or municipal laws, they sat them down for three weeks straight and taught them how to do problem solving, conflict mediation, and effective communication.

Public Safety committee  Yes. Again it's just a quick document that was shared with me. It reads: That the Committee conduct a study into all aspects of the economics of policing, by speaking to federal, aboriginal, provincial, territorial and municipal, police forces in all areas of enforcement, with a focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement.

Public Safety committee  I support everything Chief Hanson just said. When we were all in horse and buggies and didn't have superhighways, when we built those highways we built a Highway Traffic Act that supported the laws. Now we have the information highway. We don't have a legislative framework for the massive amounts of traffic and the speed and volume around which people use that highway.

Public Safety committee  The number one current drivers are guns, gangs, and drugs, and all the different underlying issues that go along with that. I'm sure you're all fully educated in that, so I won't bother going through the list. Second—I fully support Chief Hanson in this—is the issue of mental health, not in terms of clinical diagnosis but just the stress it places on individuals in extended periods of economic downturn and in heavy urbanized environments, which Calgary and Toronto are.

Public Safety committee  Exactly as I said. They don't like the way things are and they don't like the ideas that have been proposed to them for change. I'm not sure we're much different from the fire department or the public health sector, or even government and bureaucrats who work for you. It's difficult to accept that you need to do things differently and significantly differently, not incrementally differently.

Public Safety committee  One of the things that we've done from an operation standpoint is adopt a pilot project to deliver a hub model similar to the one that Chief McFee did in Prince Albert. In fact, we went to Prince Albert and virtually stole, copied, begged, borrowed, and everything else, what he did there.

Public Safety committee  I believe that what has been broadly described as the social work aspect of policing is an important and vital part, but it should not be the predominant role that police officers play. We have been forced to take on more and more of this role, because structurally, the way we line up with other service providers—public health and public education are two quick examples—we are not in really good formal partnerships.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. I'm responsible for all of our divisional policing operations, which includes our 18 police divisions that serve all of the city of Toronto, 4,200 members who work for me, and a $450 million budget. Virtually two-thirds of all of our members and one-half of all of the operating budget for the Toronto Police Service revolve around my operations.

Public Safety committee  Yes. Good morning to the panel, and thank you for including me today.