The Toronto Police Department (TPS) confirmed to CBC News that as of June 6, it has reassigned officers from the Community Response Unit (CRU), with the exception of those at Directorates 14, 51 and 52. Police say the relocation was necessary to support the expansion of a different unit – the Neighborhood Officer program – to various parts of the city. “It was an amazing integration and that’s a wonderful thing for the community,” said Didi Cameron, who lives in the neighborhood of Eglinton Avenue East and Mount Pleasant Road. “She is gone now.” Residents say that while they understand the need for dedicated officers in other communities, they are concerned that they are missing out on a key crime prevention tool in their neighborhoods. While some experts support the expansion of the Neighborhood Officers Program, they question why the move was made without revealing many details about the decision.
Part of a community
CRU officers are responsible for everything from responding to crime in a particular area and patrolling to working on issues such as prevention. They also respond to events such as demonstrations and festivals in a particular community. Cameron started a neighborhood monitoring team about eight years ago and says CRU officers patrolling her neighborhood in the 53rd Division have played a key role. “We make communities aware, safe, by teaching them how to communicate. And it all comes down to these community response units – which give us the information to share,” Cameron said. “They are the ones who talk to us, who teach us what is going on in our neighborhood, how to protect ourselves. They will go out and talk to different groups, organizations quite often.” Police appear here patrolling the Dixon Road community as part of an outreach program. (Patrick Morrell / CBC) Cameron says a large part of the existence of CRU officers is the relationships they have built with residents and businesses. “I understand that some neighborhoods, some neighborhoods may need more policing for their issues … but it may not be to the detriment of other neighborhoods and communities.” In the eastern part of the city, some residents have a similar feeling about the loss of CRU officers. “It boosts the safety of the whole community. And that’s why I’m sad to take it,” said Cindy Cass, a neighborhood watch’s spokeswoman for the part of the beach known as Pleasantville – south of Queen Street East. and just west of Woodbine Avenue. “They really focus on building trust with people and also on having good relationships with the people in your community and that helps reduce crime.”
The Neighborhood Officers Program is being expanded
TPS told CBC News it was redeploying CRU officers to expand the Neighborhood Officers Program. from 38 neighborhoods to 51. Similar to the CRU, neighborhood officers are community-based but are stationed for at least four years to get to know the community better. They are more deliberately selected for specific skills and are only found in target communities. The program was introduced a decade ago, but expanded in 2019. “The agency recognizes that these are significant changes for TPS and our communities,” police said in a statement. Toronto police say they are relocating CRU officers to expand the Neighborhood Officers Program. (Martin Trainor / CBC) TPS went on to say: “We are making our operational decisions to better police the city with the resources we have.” The remaining CRU officers who have not been deployed as neighborhood officers will be sent to the Emergency Response Unit (PRU), which responds to emergency calls. Former Toronto Police Council Chairman Alok Mukherjee says he welcomes the expansion of the Neighborhood Officer program, noting that even with the expansion, most neighborhoods still do not have dedicated neighborhood officers. But he questioned why many details of the expansion have not been made public, saying one of the goals of the program was to address the roots of armed violence. Alok Mukherjee chaired the Toronto Police Service Board from 2005 to 2015. (Provided by Alok Mukherjee) “We needed some scrutiny and some evaluation and some analysis from the police service to show us exactly how the Neighborhood Officer program was effective in achieving this goal of being a precautionary, precautionary initiative,” Mukherjee said. “There is a lot of information that has not been provided to the community. But in the meantime, as we know, they are expanding without first being transparent and telling people.” Mukherjee also wonders what it means for CRU officers to leave for neighborhoods that do not currently have neighborhood officers. “The areas that are losing their community workers, I think there are questions. How will this be done? What will happen to the knowledge networks, the connections, the links that this community had created?” TPS told CBC News that it was “committed” to ensuring that public safety was maintained throughout the reshuffle.
