Policing costs in Toronto could come down $35 million annually for a simple shift schedule change, a report presented to the Toronto Police Services board has found.

The Ernst & Young efficiency report, commissioned by the city, found a wide range of ways to save, in total, $52.1 million with a more streamlined police service — if the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires in 2014, could be renegotiated.

The report will come before the next Toronto Police Services Board meeting in January, where Chief Bill Blair plans to present a written response.

Here’s where the $52 million would come from:

• $25 million: Moving front-line officers to an 8-8-8 shift schedule (totaling 24 hours per day.)

Currently, officers work a 10-hour day shift, a 10-hour evening shift or an eight-hour night shift (10-10-8, totalling 28 hours a day), so that there are four hours of overlap time. By eliminating the extra hours, the complement of front-line officers could be reduced by about 300.

• $10 million: Move all other officers currently on a 10-10-8 shift schedule to an 8-8-8 schedule.

Former mayor John Sewell, who now works as co-ordinator of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, has been calling for a change in shifts for years. In an open letter to Mayor Rob Ford in January, Sewell wrote that “in every 24 hours, police are paid to work 28 hours. Getting police to work just 24 hours every day would “cut out the gravy,” he wrote.

However, Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, defends the current schedule as the most efficient for managing response times when police are needed most. He says his members aren’t willing to reopen talks to introduce this change.

“We’re not factory workers, where you can have a production line,” McCormack said. “It’s not efficient to have the same number of officers working at 6 o’clock in the morning as it is to have them at midnight or 3 o’clock in the morning. The big crossover is between midnight and 3 a.m., so we have more officers on the road when bars are getting out.”

• $3.7 million: Transfer some functions to civilians. The report suggests as many as 227 jobs being done by police officers could be done by civilians, who earn less.

• $10 million: Adopt a staffing model in which 40 per cent of a front-line officer’s time is spent on proactive policing. Based on the number of calls handled by officers, the number of officers could be reduced by up to 115.

• $2.2 million: Reduce supervisors. The efficiency report found the Toronto force to be top-heavy; among the 17 divisions, seven have more supervisors than necessary.

• $1 million: Costs would be trimmed from call-taking operations.

Some $400,000 could be saved by reduced staffing, although that might mean a slightly longer wait time for emergency calls to be answered. The authors acknowledge that “the city may not wish to pursue this opportunity.”

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Call-taking staff answer emergency calls on average within two seconds, and non-emergency calls within 7 seconds. Setting the emergency-service benchmark at 90 percent of calls answered within 10 seconds would save money.

The report also found that staff at four divisions consistently handle fewer calls on average than other divisions. It suggests consolidating dispatch staff for these divisions to save $650,000.