The Toronto police union is launching a “non-confidence” vote against Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders — something the union president is calling the chief’s “last opportunity” to act on its demands.The vote, to take place electronically and close February 21, is intended to garner “quantitative” evidence of the membership’s lack of support for the city’s top cop, according to Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack. “It’s a clear message to the chief that he needs to fix this,” McCormack said Thursday. “A significant number have told us that they’ve lost confidence on the chief’s ability to address concerns with urgency.” The vote is a symbolic gesture; the police chief is hired and employed by the Toronto police board. But McCormack said he hopes police board chair Andy Pringle and Mayor John Tory take note and realize the chief may not have the backing of his officers. Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said the service would not be responding the union’s non-confidence vote.The vote comes amid a months-long campaign by the association against ongoing cost-cutting changes within Toronto police. That has included a temporary freeze on hiring and promotions, a measure from which the police board last year backed down after pressure from the union. Nonetheless, the police union has said its complement has reached critically low levels, in part, because hiring was not taking place fast enough, and claiming short-staffing has resulted in longer wait times when citizens call police. Last fall, the union encouraged its members to don “Toronto Police Association” baseball hats instead of their standard-issue forage hats to protest “empty promises” from its leadership to fix low staffing levels. Then last month, the union took out a full-page advertisement in the Star showing a laughing Tory alongside a grinning Saunde ...
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