RICHARD BRENNAN AND VANESSA LU
Aug. 12, 2005. 06:12 AM
The Ontario government is announcing today it will spend $37 million annually to help hire 1,000 new police officers, half of them to target problems such as guns and gangs."We will allocate 500 officers to community policing and 500 to six priority areas: guns and gangs, youth crime, organized crime, dangerous offenders, domestic violence and protecting children from Internet luring and child porn," a government source said yesterday.
Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter was to release details of the long-awaited program at Toronto Police Headquarters today.
The province will pay 50 per cent of the cost to hire officers with a maximum payout of $35,000 per officer to police forces in southern Ontario and $70,000 per officer in northern Ontario. In Toronto, a recruit earns about $42,000 a year in salary and benefits, while a first-class constable earns about $82,000 in salary and benefits.
The program will include retroactive payment to police departments that hired additional officers since Oct. 23, 2003, when the Liberals came to power following an election promise to hire 1,000 officers. Today's announcement will fulfill that pledge. It comes after a spate of gun violence that killed 10 people in 21 shootings across Toronto in the past three weeks.
The violence has led to criticism that Mayor David Miller is soft on crime. Yesterday, he promised the city would hire at least 150 officers.
"Guns do not have a place in Toronto," Miller told reporters. "I am not going to let our city become one where gun crimes are routine."
In Banff, Alta., where he was attending a premiers' conference, Premier Dalton McGuinty said he had asked Kwinter to "find a way" to fast-track the hiring of 1,000 new police officers. It will likely be spring before new officers are on the street.
The provincial program will pay some of Toronto's cost to hire more officers with the rest covered by a $4 million surplus in the police force's operating budget this year.
But yesterday, Toronto's budget chief David Soknacki questioned the mayor's announcement, warning any hiring decisions need to go through the proper channels.
"It's crisis management. It's not prudent management for the city," he said. "It's not a long-term vision or strategy."
When a city department enjoys a surplus in a given year, those funds must go back into general revenues to cover other departments that may have a shortfall, he said. If there is additional money available, then the city can determine how it should be spent.
While Soknacki said hiring more officers might be a good idea, the city has other priorities to weigh. He noted that salaries and benefits would continue to increase as well as other associated costs like equipment, cars and even management staff.
While Miller praised the Toronto police for their efforts in fighting the latest wave of gang-related violence—including Police Chief Bill Blair's decision to redeploy more officers to affected neighbourhoods—he wants to see a beefed-up force.
"I really detest guns. I don't think there is any place for a gun in this city, period," he said. "There is only one reason to have a gun in this city, if you don't have a bona-fide permit, (and) that's to commit a crime with it."
The police services board will consider Miller's plan at its meeting next month following a look at the feasibility of the proposal. Miller also visited yesterday with the family of 4-year-old Shaquan Cadougan, who was injured in a drive-by shooting outside his family's home on Driftwood Ave., in the Jane-Finch corridor.
Part of his decision to fly home late Wednesday from a vacation was to ensure he could spend time visiting with victims of the recent shootings, he said.
When Miller was first questioned last Thursday why he had not visited any of the victims' families, he stumbled, saying: "I can't really answer that question." He was again questioned on Monday, and Miller said, "I have not had the opportunity yet."
The next day, he left on his scheduled vacation with his family.
Yesterday, he said he would be taking the next few days to have private visits with families, but would not be bringing along the media.Blair called Miller's announcement "an excellent start," but insisted the hiring plans were in the works long before the recent rash of shootings.
"I would not like to see this characterized as simply a response to that violence. It is very much part of a long-term ongoing plan," Blair said, adding that through restructuring, he hopes to have at least 200 officers out of their current desk jobs and on the streets.
Frank Chen, chief administrative officer for the Toronto police, credits the $4 million surplus to federal funding to pay for Toronto officers deployed to Ottawa during U.S. President George W. Bush's visit this year, provincial funding for the Cecilia Zhang murder investigation, and more senior officers retiring than expected, lowering salary costs.
While the city had already planned to hire 50 additional officers next year, there is always a lag time in getting them in uniform because of the time it takes to select and train recruits. The chief hopes to have at least 50 additional officers on the street by next May.
During the 2003 mayoral race, Miller often criticized his opponent John Tory for promising to hire 400 more police officers if he was elected. Miller always argued it was more important to get officers out of their cruisers and on to the street. At the time, Miller said: "I don't think anybody can, realistically, within the city's financial framework, promise 400 more police officers next year.... It's really an irresponsible promise to make."Although Councillor Norm Kelly (Ward 40, Scarborough-Agincourt) has called on the mayor to hold a special council to deal with issue of gun violence, Soknacki thinks Miller should instead hold a briefing of city councillors with Blair on the city's plans.
Only three other councillors — Frances Nunziata (Ward 11, York South-Weston), Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) and Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West), are supporting the idea.
Miller dismissed any call for such a council meeting, saying he does not feel it would be effective.
"I think it's a time for action, not for words. I don't see a council meeting as producing anything immediate," the mayor said.
Information packages on the provincial program were to be mailed out to municipalities beginning today and they will have until Sept. 30 to apply.
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Commentary
Note, the Ontario Government is making "politically correct noises", The police want more money so they use the most politically correct reasons to justify their demands for "more officers".
Community policing? Just how does employing more police reduce the problem of guns crossing the border?
The Ontario Government fails miserably to show any understanding of the problem's fundamental causes, a dysfunctional society caused primarily by absent fathers. Children without fathers being involved in their lives have the greater probability of ending up involved in street crime.
Children who grow up in functional two parent traditional families have a low probability of ending up in street gangs.
The problem of guns is caused by poor border crossing security. The solution is very very simple, Compulsory random searches of cars crossing the border and of cars who frequent areas "gang areas" at gang times.
Ontario for example does not think of the greater public good. Anyone can get in their car and drive drunk and have a very low probability of being stopped unless they provide reasonable cause. The solution is simple, introduce legislation that requires police to random breath test drivers at any time of the day on any road without any reason. It will only be then that drunk and unlicenced drivers will know that their days are numbered.
The same applies to guns, the only way to stop the problem is "random searches" of cars and people who cross the border and who frequent gang areas or associate with gang people.
Now lets look at the last part of this propaganda exercise, "domestic violence", the present funding is largely used to promote statistics to support a demand for more funding for the same alleged problem that does not stand up to close examination.
Go to any domestic violence court and you will hear women admit in about 50% of cases that it was not their male partners who assaulted them but the woman in reality assaulted the man but he is the one being charged. In half the other cases the charges are generally phony and for the sole purpose of gaining custody of the children and or to prevent the father from having any relationship with the child in the future.
The Ontario Government should have dropped 50% of the funding for Domestic Violence and applied that to the very unspecific and broad subject of "protecting children from Internet luring and child porn".
What that does not indicate is just how those who protect children are getting more money? Is that going to the infamous Children's Aid Society?
Where for example is there sensible funding for what is really needed, specialized probation officers who specialize in child sex offenders ?
Where is there any funding to deal with the fundamental route cause, venile corrupt man hating feminist family court judges who are hell bent on feminist ideals of marriage destruction.