Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

Command includes Communications (i.e., 911 call-takers and dispatchers), the Toronto
Police College (which trains new recruits and provides annual in-service training to all
officers), and the Professional Standards unit (which reviews the conduct of officers
alleged to have breached applicable standards and prosecutes disciplinary proceedings).
51. The Community Safety Command consists of the 17 police divisions, the Central
Field and Area Field Commands, as well as the Toronto Police Operations Centre and
the Divisional Policing Support Unit. All front line police officers and their supervisors
report up the chain of command to the Deputy Chief responsible for the Community
Safety Command.
52. The Deputy Chief of the Specialized Operations Command oversees various
specialized police units in the areas of Public Safety (including emergency management,
public order, the Emergency Task Force, and the marine and canine units) and
Detective Operations.
53. There are also certain offices that report directly to the Chief of Police rather than
through a deputy chief or the CAO, including the Corporate Communications office, the
Disciplinary Hearings Office, the Executive Officer, and the Strategy Management office.
54. All members of the TPS are required to comply with commands from the Chief of
Police. The vast majority of commands are set out in writing in Standards of Conduct,
Operational Procedures, and Routine Orders. These are standing directions to the
members of the Service. A number of these standing directions are relevant to the
mandate and subject matter of this Review, and I discuss them in more detail below in
various chapters of the Report.
4. The Special Investigations Unit
55. The TPS is subject to independent oversight by several different bodies with
varying functions as set out in the Police Services Act and its regulations. It is beyond
the scope of this Review to examine the independent oversight functions that these
bodies perform, but it is worthwhile to identify the role of the Special Investigations
Unit (SIU) specifically, since that body figures prominently whenever the police use
lethal force.
56. Under section 113 of the Police Services Act, the SIU is created as a unit within
the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General. The SIU is responsible for investigating
the circumstances of serious injuries or deaths that may have resulted from criminal
offences committed by police officers. Whenever police use lethal force, the SIU
investigates whether the officer who caused the death committed a criminal offence. If
there are reasonable grounds to do so, the SIU director is required to cause an
information to be laid against a police officer in connection with the matters
investigated, and to refer the information to the Crown Attorney for prosecution.
57. The SIU’s role is limited. The SIU does not examine whether a police officer’s
conduct complied with internal Service governance requirements as set out in Standards
of Conduct, Operational Procedures, and Standing Orders. The latter type of
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