{"id":252,"date":"2024-04-30T12:58:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T16:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/?p=252"},"modified":"2024-04-30T13:12:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T17:12:16","slug":"how-your-tax-dollars-are-going-toward-suspended-police-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/2024\/04\/30\/how-your-tax-dollars-are-going-toward-suspended-police-officers\/","title":{"rendered":"How your tax dollars are going toward suspended police officers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Toronto police officers had the most suspensions in Ontario over the past decade according to a new report<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Story by Andrew Roberts. Multimedia by Keira Osborne.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"623\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/Bicycle_police_patrolling_during_Freedom_Convoy_protest_in_Toronto_May_21_2022-1.jpg\" alt=\"Bicycle police patrol the streets in Toronto.\" class=\"wp-image-253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/Bicycle_police_patrolling_during_Freedom_Convoy_protest_in_Toronto_May_21_2022-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/Bicycle_police_patrolling_during_Freedom_Convoy_protest_in_Toronto_May_21_2022-1-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/Bicycle_police_patrolling_during_Freedom_Convoy_protest_in_Toronto_May_21_2022-1-768x467.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bicycle police patrol the streets in Toronto. Image courtesy of Maksim Sokolov.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/197\/2024\/04\/Play.ht-How-your-tax-dollars-are-going-toward.wav\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Toronto Police Service (TPS) has had 130 paid suspensions of 119 officers over the past decade which is an estimated 2.33 per cent of the department according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=D&amp;q=https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/newsinteractives\/features\/suspended-police-officers-cost-ontario-taxpayers-134m-over-past-decade&amp;ust=1714415400000000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0dLeuwE7U6ww95RXnK6H4L&amp;hl=en&amp;source=gmail\">recent CBC News investigative report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CBC News\u2019 investigation collected publicly available information about officers across 44 police departments in which the TPS had the most suspensions issued. The report that was published on Tuesday said these suspensions have cost taxpayers across Ontario approximately $134 million over the past 11 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src='https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/17554010\/embed' title='Interactive or visual content' class='flourish-embed-iframe' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' style='width:100%;height:600px;' sandbox='allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation'><\/iframe><div style='width:100%!;margin-top:4px!important;text-align:right!important;'><a class='flourish-credit' href='https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/17554010\/?utm_source=embed&#038;utm_campaign=visualisation\/17554010' target='_top' style='text-decoration:none!important' rel=\"noopener\"><img alt='Made with Flourish' src='https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/made_with_flourish.svg' style='width:105px!important;height:16px!important;border:none!important;margin:0!important;'> <\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ontario.ca\/laws\/statute\/19c01\">Community Safety and Policing Act<\/a>, implemented on April 1st , will now allow police chiefs to suspend officers without pay but only concerning accusations of a serious, indictable offence committed while the officer was off duty, such as murder or aggravated sexual assault. The decision to suspend an officer without pay must also go before an adjudicator under the act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the act was implemented, Ontario was the only province that gave officers their full pay during a suspension unless they had been denied bail or sentenced to imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn all honesty, the small step that has been taken \u2013 I don&#8217;t think is going to bring them to par with other provinces,\u201d Jeff McGuire, executive director of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, told CBC News. \u201cThere still will be, in my view, a number of police officers that are on suspension with pay that the chiefs don&#8217;t feel is appropriate, and I gather a lot of the public won&#8217;t feel is appropriate either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src='https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/17556445\/embed' title='Interactive or visual content' class='flourish-embed-iframe' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' style='width:100%;height:600px;' sandbox='allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation'><\/iframe><div style='width:100%!;margin-top:4px!important;text-align:right!important;'><a class='flourish-credit' href='https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/17556445\/?utm_source=embed&#038;utm_campaign=visualisation\/17556445' target='_top' style='text-decoration:none!important' rel=\"noopener\"><img alt='Made with Flourish' src='https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/made_with_flourish.svg' style='width:105px!important;height:16px!important;border:none!important;margin:0!important;'> <\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>After the act was initially passed it took five years for it to be implemented after more than 30 meetings with municipalities, advocates, police services and the filing of more than two dozen regulations to accompany the law according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=D&amp;q=https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/politics\/overhaul-of-ontario-police-law-set-to-take-effect-five-years-after-act-passed\/article_fdfd7473-2054-516a-963a-3e367535d918.html&amp;ust=1714415400000000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3lpq54pL5uqL96qsLbDTuS&amp;hl=en&amp;source=gmail\">The Canadian Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/gta\/there-s-just-no-justification-more-than-120-police-officers-in-ontario-are-currently-suspended\/article_c831a769-d1d7-5255-b3ea-6c2fcd755e4a.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/gta\/there-s-just-no-justification-more-than-120-police-officers-in-ontario-are-currently-suspended\/article_c831a769-d1d7-5255-b3ea-6c2fcd755e4a.html\">notable cases<\/a> of Toronto officers taking extended paid suspensions occurred in 2021. Four Toronto officers were originally accused of planting drugs to justify a search in 2016. Over the five years leading up to their disciplinary tribunal, each of the officers was paid their normal salary of more than $100,000 a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Two of the four officers would later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/gta\/two-of-four-toronto-officers-plead-guilty-to-misconduct-in-2014-search-judge-previously-tossed\/article_367e5d04-3aa6-58e2-a5e6-5499d89f43ab.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/gta\/two-of-four-toronto-officers-plead-guilty-to-misconduct-in-2014-search-judge-previously-tossed\/article_367e5d04-3aa6-58e2-a5e6-5499d89f43ab.html\">plead guilty<\/a> to reduced misconduct charges during the disciplinary tribunal. The other two officers had their charges withdrawn. One of the officers who pleaded guilty lost 15 days of pay and a demotion to second-class constable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than half of criminally convicted officers in Ontario return to work according to CBC News\u2019 report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen you look at the number of members who returned to work following a suspension, I think that really talks about, was there a need to suspend those members in the first place?\u201d Mark Baxter, president of the Police Association of Ontario, told CBC News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toronto police officers had the most suspensions in Ontario over the past decade according to a new report Story by Andrew Roberts. Multimedia by Keira Osborne. The Toronto Police Service (TPS) has had 130 paid suspensions of 119 officers over the past decade which is an estimated 2.33 per cent of the department according to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201w2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}