“Like bending granite.”That’s how challenging it can be to change attitudes, practices and perspectives within policing organizations, declared academic Dorothy Guyot, author of 1991 book Policing as Though People Matter, after observing the monumental task of reorganizing police forces throughout the United States.Not impossible. But miles from easy.Last month, a Toronto police task force unveiled its own attempt at taking on the proverbial granite bending — a road map to modernize Toronto police services, increase public trust and cut costs.The result of a year’s work by a civilian and police committee led by Toronto police chief Mark Saunders and police board chair Andy Pringle, the so-called transformational task force report claims to have found $100 million in savings and recommends everything from redrawing the divisional map and overhauling emergency call dispatch to a hiring freeze.“This plan defines the path to excellence for the Toronto Police Service. It envisions an organization that is an international leader in providing trusted community-focused policing,” Saunders and Pringle wrote in a Toronto police report, in advance of the police board’s meeting this week.As the police board prepares to debate the final report , the document is receiving mixed reviews from experts and critics who know the monumental task requires calculated planning and clear objectives.Overall, it is “a very good plan,” says Fred Kaustinen, executive director of the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards and an expert in transformational leadership.“The stated intentions are noble, principles are contemporary, and the goals are both lofty and appropriate.”Chief among those goals is what the task force calls “neighbourhood centric policing,” a response to public criticism that officers, often holed up in their cruisers, don’t know the communities they serve and too ...
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