Cycle Toronto deputes at Toronto Police Services Board
Back in August, Cycle Toronto deputed at the Toronto Police Services Board regarding their multi-year hiring strategy, making the case that more of the current police budget should be allocated to the City of Toronto’s transportation department. This new funding could be used to help support the expansion of the Traffic Agent Program, and more automated enforcement technologies which are currently deployed as a way to curb speeding and red light running. They could also be used to enforce illegal bike lane parking.
(Summary of 2024 proposed budget and staffing levels. Image: TPS)
In recent years as many people are killed by vehicle collisions as homicides in Toronto, but traffic enforcement remains just 5% of the Toronto police budget. Enforcement alone cannot be the solution to tackling this public health crisis.
Cycle Toronto Executive Director addressed TPS board members at the meeting with the following remarks:
My name is Michael Longfield, and I am the Executive Director of Cycle Toronto, a member-supported charity that brings people together for a healthier and more vibrant city.
Reducing response times for emergency Priority 1 calls we’ve heard about today is a stated focus of the Multi Year Hiring Plan. There have been 33 shooting homicides in Toronto this year according to TPS’s Public Safety Data Portal. While this is a worrying number, it nearly matches the 31 traffic fatalities this year according to the city’s VisionZero Dashboard. This is not an anomaly. Generally traffic fatalities–which are overwhelmingly the result of vehicle collisions–in Toronto equal or outnumber the number of homicides in our city.
Already 6 people on bikes have been killed in Toronto this year, more than the previous 3 years combined, and more than any single year in over a decade. This is a public health crisis, and evidence the status quo isn’t working. Riding a bike shouldn’t be an act of courage.
To be clear I am not suggesting any kind of preventable tragedy does have or should have more merit or weight. And I am certainly not an expert in how Toronto or any city should be tackling violent crimes and homicides.
But the Multi Year Hiring Plan identifies opportunities to support safer communities through Alternative Service Delivery that could have [quote] “(potentially) been handled through a non-police response, if proper alternative responses were in place.” Alternative resources (e.g. Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams) and transferred out non-core services (e.g., crossing guards, T.T.C. security) are some examples mentioned in the 2024 budget report.
Building on the success of the city’s Traffic Agent Program piloted in 2016, we recommend accelerating that partnership to explore alternative resources and transferring out parking and traffic enforcement, and event and construction zone traffic management to the city, allowing TPS to redirect resources to focus on other core duties. “Parking and Traffic Enforcement” represents about 5% of the total police budget. Together with 2% for “Events and Protests”, that’s nearly $100M.
Toronto must continue to reduce the reliance on the ground enforcement, and accelerate building streets that are safe by design and the expansion of automated technologies including automated speed enforcement cameras, red light cameras, dedicated bus lanes and transit priority corridors cameras, and obstructed bike lanes to automated enforcement.
Finally, a quick thank you to the folks at 14 and 11 Division who helped take my report for my stolen bicycle on Tuesday morning. And if anyone sees a light blue step-through e-bike, please let me know.
Thank you
(Michael Longfield deputing at the TPS Board.)
