Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

Chapter 5. Police Culture
1. This chapter addresses the role that police culture plays within the Toronto Police
Service, as it relates to the issues addressed in this Review.
2. Although the topic of police culture is not one of the enumerated topics in my
mandate, the issues posed by police culture are embedded within many of the
enumerated topics, and it arises in some form in each of the other chapters of this
Report. In this chapter, I address some overarching issues relating to TPS culture.
3. When I refer to police culture, I mean the prevailing attitudes, beliefs and values
of members of the Service. The culture of the TPS is manifested in the way that
members treat one another, including the various pressures that members exert on one
another to conform to a certain manner of behaving and speaking, both inside and
outside the TPS. The culture is also manifested in the way that members of the TPS treat
those outside the organization with whom they interact as part of their work, and in the
approach and methods used by members in carrying out their work.
4. This chapter is structured around the following topics. First, I discuss in broad
terms the role that police culture plays in determining police behaviour. I then discuss
some of the key factors that help to mold police culture over time, and I comment on
what must occur in order to modify police culture in a proactive manner. The next
section of the chapter is a discussion of key elements of the TPS culture that I observed
and was informed about that are relevant to the subject matter of the Review. The
culture of the Toronto Police Service includes many salutary elements that deserve to be
acknowledged and reinforced. Along with my discussion of these positive elements, I
also address the elements of TPS culture that, as is the case in every organization, merit
examination to see if they can be improved.
I. The Current Situation
A. The role of police culture
5. A statement that the Review heard from several people, including not only
outside stakeholders, but also senior members of the TPS, is that “culture eats training.”
6. In other words, regardless of how effective a training regime may be, the training
will not cause the desired behaviour if the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the majority of
people in the organization are inconsistent with the training. As a practical matter,
formal police training is relatively brief, and occurs largely at the police colleges.
Culture, on the other hand, surrounds police officers at their workplace, and is present
in all interactions. Culture must align with the training in order for the training to be
effective over the longer term. The pressure to conform to the prevailing culture is
significant, and the lessons of training will be ineffective if they conflict with the practice
in the field and the expectations of fellow officers and supervisors.
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