A View of Our World
By Jon Reid
President, Toronto Police Association (Retired)
Catch and Release – Not Just for Fishing Anymore
After more than 36 years of policing in Toronto, twelve years of which I served on the Board of the Toronto Police Association and the last four years as the President, I have seen many things that would terrify and disgust the general public. These are things that no one should be exposed to, yet our men and women discharge their sworn duties to serve and protect our communities each and every day.
Toronto Police Service is the largest municipal police service in Canada and the fourth largest in North America, yes you read correctly the fourth largest in North America, with an operating budget of almost 1.4 billion dollars. It is comprised of almost 8,200 uniform and civilian members. From March 31, 2022 – April 30, 2023 Toronto’s total calls for service city-wide reached 2,131,595. That number continues to increase.
Police officers are out there on the front lines while you and I are sleeping. They keep us and our families safe in our homes. You shouldn’t have to see the things that police officers see. Although they are highly trained professionals having to deal with such things is truly life altering. But when given the tools, the time, and the support to do their jobs, by any standard including international standards Toronto police officers not only do it well, but better than well.
In this article will not delve into the Defunding the Police debate as I note that Riskboss Magazine spoke to this issue comprehensively in their last magazine edition. I echo the article as written in that there have been many efforts to defund the police for decades in Toronto.
I have most recently emphasized to Toronto politicians that from 2010 to 2022, the population has increased by 460K (13.1%), while the number of police officers decreased by 11.4%. We have not kept pace with this immense growth, thus based on 2010 staffing to population numbers, we should have 6,700 police officers policing this city today.
Sadly, we currently far below that number and have about 5,200 police officers. This is not enough when we currently have an average 17-minute delayed response on serious 911 calls for service. This is marginally down from 22 minutes a year ago. This is still far too long and nowhere near the five-minute response time expectation set by the Toronto Police Services Board years ago.
This is the front line reality directly attributed to such large staffing shortfalls. A grim reality that can have, and often does have, serious consequences and something that Toronto politicians must deal with very soon to maintain community safety.
Catch and Release
Today I want to discuss the prevalence of Catch and Release practices by our court system that has and continues to have a dramatic impact on the ability of police officers to be effective in their roles nation-wide. Amid the many problems that Canadian communities face with mental health and drug dependence issues being foremost, Catch and Release by the courts is the highest risk to community safety.
I want to focus this discussion not on first time offenders and lower grade offences, but moreover, hardened career criminal repeat offenders and those who possess and use firearms to commit terrible crimes in the community while out on bail, only to then to be arrested and released back into the community on bail, yet again most often the very same day.
Opponents to incarcerating repeat violent criminals argue that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms firmly ingrained in Canadian society and the presumption of innocence will be trampled upon unless the judiciary continues the current Catch and Release policy and practice.
At a time when the Violent Crime Severity Index for Toronto increased by 15.1% in 2022 and another 20.6 % in 2023. The 2022 numbers are three times more than the rate of increases seen nationally and twice the rate of increases seen provincially.
I would ask opponents to fixing our broken bail system to consider the rights of the victims and the law-abiding citizens. I would urge anyone to ask the victims of serious crimes, their neighbours who live in fear, their families who watch the pain and suffering caused by these career criminals who get a Get Out of Jail Free Card how they feel about this system of Catch and Release.
This not a Monopoly Game. This is real life with real victims and a real impact to our communities across the country. Communities continue to face the stark realties of this bad policy and in my view, that is supported by all front line police officers across the country, this is really bad policy.
Police are empowered by the public to Serve and Protect law abiding citizens. That is the public expectation of our police services. Police are in fact doing their jobs by arresting and incarcerating serious high-risk offenders. Unfortunately, police and the victims of crime know full well and see the results of Catch and Release policies up close and personal.
The aftermath of releasing repeat violent offenders into the community after committing serious offences while out on bail at the time of their arrests is simply unbelievable and the reasons for this being allowed to continue is hard for most people to wrap their heads around.
Catch and Release is the new norm in judicial circles across Canada while those in power federally who have a duty to ensure public safety are blind and numb to the real-life impact to communities across the country. This is not a new phenomenon or localized to just the major cities across Canada and not in just rare cases.
The Association of Chiefs of Police sixteen years ago back in 2008 called for the federal government to strengthen bail and sentencing laws to protect the public from offenders, “Who have clearly demonstrated their unrelenting willingness to engage in criminal activity that directly harms other citizens” more specifically, those who commit serious crimes while already out on bail. The Association of Chiefs of Police saw problems coming over a decade ago and now it is here because of the inaction by the federal government.
Fast forward, in a letter championed by Premier Ford and jointly penned and signed by all provincial and territory Premiers on January 13, 2023, they called upon the Prime Minister to cease the ease of which people who have committed serious offences while out on bail, get bail yet again. All provincial and territory premiers asked for a thorough review of the current bail system in Canada. Getting all Premiers to agree on one topic is almost impossible yet, they all recognize there are major problems that need to be solved immediately.
Band-Aides Don’t Work for Bad Policy
In response to the lack of federal action, the Ontario government was forced to step up and responded by announcing on April 27, 2023, that they would fund an increase in enforcement to try and manage around the broken bail system.
The Ontario government pumped one hundred and twelve million of your hard-earned tax dollars to strengthen oversight on those on bail who are high-risk repeat violent offenders in order for these career criminals to comply with their bail conditions. The province expanded the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement Squad as a check and balance to the broken bail system, the exclusive and sole responsibility of which lies with the federal government to fix.
A year later on January 11, 2024, the province injected another twenty-four million of your tax dollars for a three year plan to improve the oversight of those career criminals on bail even further to, “Help prevent repeat and violent offenders from committing serious crimes while out on bail.”
Take pause and think about this for one moment. Everyone, even politicians and our provincial and territory leaders across the country, know the bail system is severely broken. Rather than the federal government fixing the broken system, the province is forced to expend millions of tax dollars and resources for programs developed to manage high-risk and repeat violent offenders who should never be out on bail in the first place. Band-aide approaches to manage the core problem is expensive, time consuming and ineffective.
Think of what one hundred and thirty-six million tax dollars could do to assist the homeless, those in need of mental health care and combat drug dependence, yet this money had to be spent on career criminals who have been provided the freedom to reoffend as a direct result of federal Catch and Release.
Police and Communities Are Fed Up
The policing community nationwide is far more than frustrated working within a system that does not support their efforts. The police do their jobs in apprehending violent criminals, only then to see them on the streets again, very often the very same day committing similar serious crimes.
Simply put, there is no deterrent for career criminals to change their behaviour. Frankly, police do not have the resources to babysit them. Catch and Release takes away from all of the other important duties police do each and every day supporting safer and growing communities.
As I write this article, we simply have to look back to the recent shootings of two of our Toronto front-line police officers shot by career criminals who were out on bail at the time. Had these career criminals been detained until trial, our officers never would have been shot.
As reported in the Toronto CBC on October 4, 2024, “The first nine months of 2024 have already seen more shootings, and more deaths due to firearm violence, than in each of the past three years. Police Chief Myron Demkiw said the force had upped its presence in neighbourhoods most affected by shootings, and police had made 746 firearm-related arrests so far this year.”
Police officers are routinely injured in the line of duty almost daily basis, with well over 600 officers injured in Toronto so far this year (2024). It is no wonder that police officers are moving to cities and townships that do not have the level of violence that Toronto police officers face. Not to mention that these surrounding jurisdictions also acknowledge the difficult and challenging work their officers do on a daily basis by providing market value compensation and benefits. Here in Toronto the politicians refuse to do the same…. And have forced them into binding arbitration for the first time in 16 years.
Real Change Can Provide Safer Communities
Serious and violent crimes by offenders out on multiple bails is a preventable phenonium.
I was interviewed back in January of 2023 by Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun Newspaper and noted that reforms must occur before police can do their jobs properly. I was quoted in saying,
“There are so many adjustments that could be made so easily. Here are just a few that come to mind:
– No easy bail for people with firearms charges;
– Tough sentencing when convicted;
– More electronic monitoring when released;
– More projects to end gun smuggling at border points; and
– Bring back school resource officers.”
You Can Help
With a pending federal election, I would recommend that you ask election candidates what they have in mind to fix the current broken bail system in Canada and how they plan to support all emergency responders, not just the police.
Their words matter and so does your vote.