STRONG WOMEN: STRONG WORLD

On March 7, 2008, I was honoured to join the Honourable Margarett Best, Councillor Sandra Bussin, and Acting Chief Jane Dick at an International Women’s Day event at Toronto Police Headquarters.

Here is an excerpt from my speech:

It is a pleasure to greet you all today on behalf of the Toronto Police Services Board, as we gather to celebrate a very important event, the International Women’s Day.

This day is a celebration of the collective power of women past, present and future. On this day, every year, we remind ourselves of the social, economic and political barriers faced by women worldwide, while recognizing the tremendous achievements of women in virtually every part of the world. International Women’s Day has thus become a day to celebrate the great distance that humanity has travelled in improving the status of women, and to re-dedicate to the long journey that yet remains to be completed.

Canada's theme this year, Strong Women: Strong World, draws in part from one of the fundamental beliefs underlying the modern women's movement, that "a woman's place in society marks the level of civilization of that society."

Marilyn Waring, the New Zealand feminist, academic and politician, shows in her works that it is not women alone who have suffered and lost because they are yet to occupy their rightful place, but societies themselves. On this day, we do well to remember Waring’s wonderful phrase, “counterfeit equality,” as a salutary reminder that true, genuine equality will only come when women truly counted.

To say this is by no means to disregard or discount women’s many achievements as leaders, policy-makers, caregivers, educators, and international peacemakers. Examples of women playing such vital roles can be found everywhere, including in our communities and in the Toronto Police Service.

It is in recognition of just such achievements that awards will be given today to two Service members, civilian and uniform, on behalf of all of the female members who received Service awards in 2007. These awards are a symbol of the Board’s commitment that true and genuine equality for women is an important organizational priority.

Today, plaques will also be presented to Ms. Florence Wong and Ms. Talat Muinuddin, two community members who have given tirelessly to improve the lives of others.

There are countless women in this city who contribute so much every day. In honouring Florence and Talat, we honour each and every one of these magnificent women. We thank them for their gift of time, their incredible energy and their compassion. To echo the theme of this event, strong women create a strong world. Closer to home, they create a strong community, a strong workplace, a strong police service.

From celebrating the work and contribution of women like today’s honourees, we take hope that change is not only necessary, but is on its way.

Today, we renew our determination to hasten the arrival of that change by remembering the immortal words of Mother Jones who said: “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

Thank you.

WELCOMING “GENERATION Y”

There has been much discussion on how best to address the challenges that “Generation Y”, or ”Yers”, present to employers who are seeking to attract the best and the brightest into their workforces.

“Yers” are usually defined as those who were born between 1977 and 2000. Fortune magazine claims “Yers” are the most high maintenance, yet potentially most high performing generation in history because they are entering the workplace with more information, greater technological skill and higher expectations of themselves and others than previous generations. According to Time magazine, “Yers” want a work-life balance where every minute has meaning. They are not interested in the work styles of their Boomer parents.

So – what do “Yers” want?
An interesting job with many changes and challenges
Work-life balance
Superior training
Access to cutting-edge technology

Where can they find all that? The Toronto Police Service.

It is no fluke that the Toronto Police Service is positioned to be the employer of choice for ”Yers”. The Board and the Service have worked hard to attain this position. As I mentioned last week, (Employer of Choice) our objective is to be an employer of choice for highly qualified and motivated young people from all backgrounds.

With retirements and a rate of new hiring that is higher than ever in the history of this Service, the proportion of “Yers” in the organization is increasing rapidly. It is estimated that some 18% of our workforce is already made up of “Yers.” In fact, a full 20% of our uniform employees are “Yers.” On the civilian side, they constitute 14% of the employees. These numbers are bound to keep growing.

What do we offer that will encourage members of this group to come to us as well as to stay with us? Here are some of the factors that, I believe, make us an attractive long-term employer for “Yers”.

Employment with Toronto Police Service opens the door to one of the most exciting career opportunities in Canadian law enforcement. Our Service works in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan and diverse communities. Recognizing and embracing this diversity in all its forms is one of our highest priorities in the way we serve the community. Our emphasis on neighbourhood policing, culturally competent services, strong community linkages and preventative strategies, for example, means that working for us offers many opportunities to anyone who is creative and innovative, loves challenges, and is interested in serving the community.

The Toronto Police Service is a large and complex organization with an amazing range of functions that require a wide variety of technical, professional, linguistic and cultural skills and expertise. As a result, people with drive and a desire to try their hand at doing different things can have many different careers while working for the Service. Where else can you move from working with youth in high schools to the Guns and Gangs Task Force to the Community Mobilization Unit to the Sex Crimes Unit to Information Technology Services or to supervisory or managerial positions?

When it comes to career advancement, we value initiative, achievement, concern for community wellbeing, integrity and demonstrated ability over length of service. No longer is length of service the main or only criterion for moving ahead in the Toronto Police Service. Employees who possess those other attributes that I have just mentioned can move up sooner than you think. If moving up is not the thing for someone, but moving around is, the Toronto Police Service is the place to be!

As an employer, we are serious about making changes that will enable our employees to maintain balance between their work life and their family life. Thus, for some members, shift work may assist them to achieve a balance. Others are employed in non-shift jobs and find this arrangement is better. In addition, we also have provisions for alternate arrangements, such as job sharing.

As part of our commitment to a healthy balance between work and family, we also provide pregnancy leave top-up to 80% of salary. As well, members receive generous vacation and other types of time off. Many members accumulate additional paid time off through overtime and court appearances.

As an employer, we believe in the importance of life-long learning. We value and encourage higher education for our employees. Our excellent Training & Education Unit provides many different learning opportunities. In collaboration with one of Toronto’s premier post-secondary institutions, we offer a number of leadership training programs.

Some of the training takes place away from work. Many members choose to upgrade their education in their off hours. We provide certain opportunities for reimbursement of part of the tuition in order to encourage members to upgrade their qualifications.

Policing in general, and the Toronto Police Service, in particular, is fast becoming more technologically sophisticated. Technology is used for many functions, including for investigative, administrative, financial, human resources management, training and education, communication and many other purposes. For example, our child pornography investigators have achieved many successes through the use of technology.

A career with the Toronto Police Service offers challenges that will appeal to any generation – and “Yers” in particular!

ISN'T IT IRONIC?

I woke up this morning to both relatively good news and bad news, the irony of which is not lost on me.

The good news is that, according to the Toronto Sun editorial and a report in the Toronto Star a Macleans’ magazine report shows that Toronto’s crime rate is only 12.6% above the national average and that we are ranked 26 on the list of Canada’s 100 most dangerous cities. To quote the Toronto Sun editorial, “(this) suggests we must be doing something right.”

The bad news is that, according to another Toronto Sun report, “[a] new shotgun-shell firing revolver called The Judge could be the next big bad thing in Toronto’s gangland arsenal.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Staff Inspector Brian Raybould when he says in the Sun article, “[a]ny firearm in the city of Toronto is a bad firearm.”

The Toronto Police Services Board has been on the record repeatedly in calling for a ban on handguns for purposes other than law enforcement.

It is time that the federal government takes a realistic look at crime in Canada and realizes that the key to any anti-violence strategy is a ban on handguns for purposes other than law enforcement.

Perhaps the irony is lost on Minister Day.

EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

In the coming weeks, I will be blogging about diversity and how it plays a part in our drive to be the employer of choice for new recruits – uniform and civilian alike – and those transferring from other services. As I mentioned in a previous blog (Link), we are hiring more men and women than ever before who come from many different backgrounds. We are committed to making sure that the Toronto Police Service reflects this variety – and by extension, the City it serves - at all levels.

Let me explain what being an employer of choice means to me. Quite simply, an employer of choice is one that ranks among the top choices of the best and the brightest of those from all backgrounds who are seeking a profession to pursue and a workplace for it. And, further, an employer of choice is one that retains its employees for the long term.

What is particularly exciting to me is that we are pursuing the goal of being an employer of choice at a time when the Service is growing significantly, and is engaged in hiring more new members than ever before.

There are a number of factors that can help us in achieving our goal.

We offer, without question, some of the most exciting job opportunities. There are few workplaces where, in the course of one’s employment, one can have different careers, in areas as diverse as the Mounted Unit, Forensic Identification Service, the Guns and Gangs Task Force, Corporate Planning, Community Mobilization, Sex Crimes Unit and Sexual Exploitation Section. Because of this exciting prospect, an employee with drive, ambition, innovation and creativity need never be bored or fall into a rut at the Toronto Police Service.

Besides, we offer a very appealing benefits and compensation package. You will see below, information from the recruiting section of the Toronto Police Service’s website (Link)

But in a city like Toronto, with its unique demographics and its socio-economic diversity, being an employer of choice goes beyond the pay and the perks that we offer. An extremely important consideration is how we, as an employer, adapt and respond to the needs and expectations of those who come to work for us.

That is what I will be examining over the coming weeks.

Tasers and Councillor Michael Walker

This might come as a bit of a jolt to Toronto Councillor Michael Walker – but he is wrong!

The Toronto Sun is reporting that Councillor Walker wants to see a moratorium on the purchase of additional Tasers by the Toronto Police Services.

A few points of clarification for the Councillor –

1. The TPSB has not made a decision to equip front line officers with Tasers.

2. The fact is that two Coroners' juries recommended to the Board that all frontline officers be provided with Tasers because, in their view, lives would have been saved had Tasers been available. The Board received these recommendations and, following our practice, asked the Chief to respond. The Chief came back to the Board to say that he was in agreement with the juries' recommendations. However, he pointed out that in order to provide Tasers to frontline officers, the provincial rules will have to change. At present, the province allows only supervisors and tactical units to have Tasers.

The Board has asked the chief to provide a more detailed business case and research from other jurisdictions on the effects of Tasers. That report has not been provided to the Board for consideration.

3. In terms of the cost of the Tasers, this discussion is premature. There is no request in the Toronto Police Services 2008 budget request for Tasers for front line officers.

4. Regardless, as I explained in a previous blog Council is prohibited from approving or disapproving specific items in the police budget.

5. In the three or so years that the Taser has been used in Toronto, there has not been a single serious injury, let alone a death. This is because the Taser is only given to supervisory and ETF officers after an intensive training that takes double the time recommended. In addition, there are very strict rules about when the device may be used, full reporting after each time the Taser is brought out (whether fired or not), close monitoring and supervision, and, finally, reporting annually to the Board, in public, on all use of Tasers in that period, includinggeographic location, reasons for deployment, any injuries and complaints or civil actions. This combination of training, monitoring and accountability has, I believe, prevented the type of consequences that we have seen elsewhere.

6. Before any decision is made to expand on the use of Tasers, the Toronto Police Services Board will meet conduct its due diligence and consult with the public to ensure we make the right decision for our City.

FAMILY DAY BLAHS

This is from Sunday's Toronto Sun.


Family Day blahs
Cheers for the Police Services Board for standing up to the union's whining
By ROB GRANATSTEIN

Well thank goodness that's done. Family Day, I mean.

Finally the ads, public relations campaign and outright whining by the Toronto Police Association is over.

Memo to TPA President Dave Wilson: No one stole anything from you. Not your lunch. Not your kitten. Not your day off. In fact, maybe you just got a very minor taste of the real world.

First, a quick recap: All of Toronto's municipal employees get more days off than is required under Ontario legislation. That didn't stop Toronto city councillors from adding a Family Day holiday for all city workers -- except for the fine men and women of the Toronto Police Service.

Toronto Police have two floating days in their complement of 12 days off, three more than mandated by the province. One of those could easily have been changed into the Family Day holiday.

That's what happened here at the Sun. That day you wanted to use for a four-day weekend in July just became a February day off. Suck it up and move on.

Police Chief Bill Blair actually sent a memo asking for all accommodations to be made to allow people who needed Family Day off to get it, using one of their floating days -- even if they had to borrow against future holidays.

We should also remember the union and the Toronto Police Services Board have entered into contract negotiations. Does this sound like a negotiating ploy to you?

And a cheer for Chairman Alok Mukherjee and the entire Toronto Police Services Board for standing up to the union. Let's hope they keep that backbone if the two sides ever get back to the negotiating table.

A FEW DOZEN CALLS

For the record, the union's public relations campaign calling for Torontonians to rise up and complain to the mayor about this gross unfairness earned a few dozen calls and e-mails.
The board had one employee ask what that officer should tell her daughter.

Still, it's too bad city politicians couldn't muster the same intestinal fortitude as the police board. And that's where the real problem lies. City Hall gives all its employees a day off, but draws the line at the police?

Wilson's right, that's not fair.

Still, ask most Torontonians and they'd take the 12 days off -- versus the nine many get -- in a heartbeat. Saying it happened because the mayor hates the cops, as some have alleged, is ridiculous. The union's ad states straight out: "It's just another example of how Mayor Miller and the Police Services Board are tough on cops instead of tough on crime."

Wilson has been a good leader for the police association. He's pulled them out of the goon phase. But on this issue, he was wrong.

There are some things here at the Sun we will always back: Toronto Police officers should be the highest paid in the country -- and no doubt they will be again after this contract is signed.

But we also believe it's time for city employees to get off the ever-rising escalator. You know the one: If that union gets that perk or benefit, we should, too. The firefighters got 9.66% over three years, so why not everyone else?

There has to be a point where we say "enough".

The problem is one of the unions has to go first. One of them has to do what the six prominent Torontonians on the city's fiscal review panel called for last week.

As they put it: "Involved unions must accept, one way or another, the fiscal constraints that face the city as they develop their own bargaining strategies."

City councillors got a 1.9% raise. That is enough for everyone.
---
In 1999 Mayor Mel Lastman called in the army to snowblow the city out from under a massive blanket.

In 2008, Mayor David Miller called in the army, too.

Mel's call made Toronto a laughingstock because it was the actual army. But if you look back, those 420 soldiers brought a few Bison vehicles and three full crews, but mainly moved snow with shovels.

The true comparison is that in 1999 there were 93 crews removing snow. This year there are 83 crews.

And if you were in the snow removal zone, you know it felt like an army invasion. Everywhere you turned there were more dump trucks.

Fortunately the city doesn't have to pay those contractors overtime for Family Day. Contracting out by your city. Go figure.

Funding of police services

There was a very interesting article in the London Free Press earlier this week about the debate between the London Police Services Board and London City Council on the police services budget.

This is a great opportunity to talk about how the Toronto Police Service is funded.

The legislative authority for the budget process is found under section 19 of the Police Services Act. You will see that in establishing the police budget, Council does not have the authority to approve or disapprove specific items in the estimates.

Responsibility for the Toronto Police Services budget rests with the Board. The Chief submits an operating budget and a capital budget to the Board. Over a series of meetings, the Board’s budget sub-committee undertakes an in-depth review of the budget. A draft budget is then provided to the public for comment, following which, a final budget is to the entire Board for approval. It is the practice of the Toronto Police Services Board to make as many of the details of the budget available to the public as possible. (2008 TPSB Budget Overview and 2008 TPS Budget Overview)

A Board approved budget is then presented to the Budget Committee of Council by the Board, assisted by the Chief. The Budget Committee reviews the budget, asks questions and can make recommendations for change to the overall budget. Neither Council nor its committees can make changes to specific line items in the budget. Following consideration at the Committee stage,, the budget is presented to Council which ultimately votes to approve it.

As you will see from the Police Services Act subsection 39(5), “If the board is not satisfied that the budget established for it by the council is sufficient to maintain an adequate number of police officers or other employees of the police force or to provide the police force with adequate equipment or facilities, the board may request that the Commission [Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services] determine the question and the Commission, shall, after a hearing, do so.”