Toronto police response times have been highlighted in the TPA campaign

The campaign, which appears on social media and radio ads, aims to highlight slow police response times as the Toronto Police Service's budget is under review.

The campaign was launched by the Toronto Police Association – the union that represents Toronto police officers – several weeks ago and is expected to continue for several more weeks.

One of the ads shows a man pointing a gun at a driver as he gets out of his car, while another shows a stuffed animal on a playground swing where a child has gone missing.

Other scenes depicted in the ad include a home invasion and a car crash with a person on the ground.

They all state “… an officer will arrive in 22 minutes,” indicating the current average response time to priority calls.

The campaign encourages residents to contact city councils to prioritize police budgets. It comes amid public controversy over how much Toronto police will receive in the latest city budget.

“I think our biggest challenge has been to make sure the people of Toronto understand what's going on,” TPA president John Reid told CP24.com, noting the ads have been viewed 15 million times so far.

He said the response time data comes from TPS, even though he knows some people see the ad as “scary.”

“Honestly, we've never been in a situation like this,” he said. “I've been on the job 35 years and I've never seen anything this thin.”

Since 2010, the response time has decreased

According to the city, when 5,600 officers were on duty in 2010, the average response time to first-line calls was 12.8 minutes. By the end of 2023, 5,126 officers were deployed.

“From 2010 to 2023, with an increase in workload and a decrease in the average deployment of about 600 officers, Priority One response times decreased to more than 22 minutes,” city staff said in a police budget briefing.

They also noted that the city's police budget has not kept up with inflation and, if it had, would have been $274.2 million higher than last year. In 2023, Toronto spent $372 per capita on policing, compared to the Canadian median of $409.

“Today, we have 37 more officers than we did in 1999, but we have 600,000 more residents to serve,” Chief Myron Demkiw wrote in a recent comment posted on the TPS website.

Reid said the additional TPS money will be used for four classes of 90 new police officers.

“Without that money, it's my understanding that they won't be able to hold those classes, which will shut down the pipeline for another year,” Reed said.

While the budget includes money for 200 new police officers and civilian personnel this year, Reed said the city needs to move away from the cycle of hires and freezes that lead to staffing shortages and toward sustainable hiring.

“The number of officers eligible for retirement will increase significantly in the near future due to the large pool of police officers hired in the mid-1990s following layoffs in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” city staff noted in a budget memo. “Furthermore, a significant proportion of current front-line police officers have less than five years' experience.”

While the Toronto Police Services Board approved a $20 million budget increase for TPS in December, Mayor Olivia Chow's revised budget cut that increase to about $8 million.

Chief Myron Demkiw said the difference could affect response times and service levels because it contributes to a shortage of well-trained officers on the road.

Chow says the city needs a comprehensive approach to security

Including indirect support such as reserve fund contributions and money set aside for wage negotiations, the effort is up nearly $60 million from last year, which Chow called “significant.”

Speaking to reporters before the City Council meeting on Tuesday, he said he would continue to discuss the police budget ahead of next week's budget discussion.

“I'm going to continue to have a dialogue with all of my advisers and with different perspectives — from our communities or people who support the police or don't support the police — to get more money,” Chow said.

The mayor said “safety needs to be looked at holistically” and cited youth programming, mental health support for those in crisis and other emergency services as examples of other safety priorities the city is funding outside of the police budget.

“The budget will also fully fund the new 24-hour Toronto Community Crisis Service and expand it across the city. When these people are in a mental health crisis, the first response is care,” Chow's office said in a further statement. “The budget will also invest in young people and communities to get to the root of violence. The mayor's budget expands community grants, youth violence prevention and building stronger neighborhoods across the city. It will also fund three more Youth Hubs, which will provide services for young people to have somewhere to go after school.”

Chou's budget is scheduled to be discussed at a special council meeting on February 14.