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More police needed, union president says
Wilson critical of redeployment effort, insists on new hires to fight gun violence

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In the shadow of Toronto's 55th homicide of the year, the city's police union president chastised the Police Services Board and politicians for not doing enough to combat rising gun violence.

Toronto Police Association president Dave Wilson said at a news conference yesterday that Chief Bill Blair of the Toronto Police must do more to augment the already flagging force, which faced a shortage of 68 officers in August, at a time when gun violence was at its peak.

"Instead of focusing on the serious issues of gun violence and the shortage of police officers to protect the public, they have chosen to focus their time and money on the issue of police officers wearing name tags," Mr. Wilson said, referring to the $150,000 initiative to help identify police officers approved by the police services board this month.

"Instead of putting money into providing a safer community by hiring enough police officers, they are trying to convince citizens that name tags will help make this a safer city." Mr. Wilson's comments came a day after 28-year-old Sureshkumar Kanagaratnam, of Toronto, was shot dead outside a pizzeria at the Yorkwoods Shopping Plaza near Jane Street and Finch Avenue West on Tuesday night.

The shooting was the city's 37th gun-related homicide, 10 more than last year's total. It was the second fatal shooting in a week in the troubled Driftwood Avenue and Jane Street neighbourhood: Andre Burnett, 24, was gunned down while running across a footbridge last Saturday.

The neighbourhood was also the scene of a brazen drive-by shooting this summer that left four-year-old Shaquan Cadougan recovering from a bullet wound to his leg.

Chief Blair and Toronto's police board addressed the growing gun violence problem by unanimously approving the addition of 150 more officers to the 5,260-person police department by the end of 2006, with the province footing almost half the bill.

In August, Chief Blair also redeployed 100 officers from desk jobs to patrolling duties on the street in a bid to quell the gunplay.

But Mr. Wilson said yesterday that police divisions need new officers immediately, not next year, adding that the redeployed officers are not capable or ready for front-line duty. "They are what I would call our 'walking wounded,'" Mr. Wilson said of the officers who have been pushed back into street service.

"Some of them have health issues that [mean] they can't do front-line policing. What we want to do is expose that this has been a shell game, that the true protection is not being put out on the street." He also disapproved of Chief Blair's push to move officers from relatively safe parts of the city into more troubled areas, such as the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, adding that transplanting officers would only leave one community more at risk.

"It has to be a widespread approach," Mr. Wilson said. "If you gave us 500 [new officers] it'd make a difference." The police union head said that adding new personnel would not only help decrease gun violence in the city but also help increase morale among police officers, as many key divisions, such as the homicide unit, are currently overworked and understaffed.

"They are burning out. The homicide unit, with the amount of shootings we've had, they are working very hard and do not have the resources they need." Some of that pressure was relieved early this month when Chief Blair welcomed into the fold 95 new constables who were fresh out of police academy.

But Mr. Wilson said that more can be done, adding that the police service should not shut out past officers who wish to return. "If training is a problem and it takes six months to get officers on the street and there are officers that have been here who left but are interested in coming back, one of the immediate solutions is you open the doors to those officers coming back," he said, emphasizing that the idea is to welcome back active officers who have moved on to other services and not necessarily retired personnel.