Some police divisions would close and a three-year freeze would be placed on hiring and promotions under recommendations from a task force aiming to “revitalize and modernize” the Toronto Police Service.

In an interim report to be released Thursday, the so-called Transformational Task Force identifies $100 million in reductions and savings to the service’s operating budget in the next three years, reversing a trend that lifted the budget over the $1 billion mark this year.

Salaries and benefits make up 89 per cent of the budget.

The interim report claims to lay out a “modern vision” and a “balanced plan” for Canada’s largest municipal police service that aligns strategy, actions and financial imperatives. The task force also identified up to $72 million worth of land and buildings to be returned to the city.

“This will be unprecedented change for the Service and a fundamental departure from a service delivery model that has been in place since the 1957 creation of the Metropolitan Toronto Police,” says the 35-page report reviewed by the Star.

The changes proposed “will not be easy,” and some proposals will require discussions with the city and changes to provincial legislation, the report says.

Co-chaired by Chief Mark Saunders and Toronto Police Services Board chair Andy Pringle, the task force plans to release its report to the media Thursday afternoon.

Mayor John Tory, who sits on the board, called it “one of the most significant documents” on policing in Toronto in the past 25 years.

“There were those who doubted this process would work in terms of having some citizens working together with the police to bring about some very meaningful reforms,” Tory said Wednesday.

He said the recommendations will make for a safer city and deploy police services more efficiently, leading to the “restoration of trust in some places where trust had been eroded between police and the community.”

The report, called TheWay Forward: Modernizing Community Safety in Toronto, contains 24 interim recommendations, including

A phased-in redesign of the divisional map, starting with amalgamating midtown Toronto’s 54 and 55 Divisions. Between now and when it issues a final report, the task force will explore “similar options” for Divisions 12, 13, 33, 52 and 53.

A moratorium on hiring and promotions for officers and civilians over the next three years. The current complement of 5,200 uniformed officers would be reduced to 4,750 in three years. Civilian employees would be reduced to 1,850 from 2,220. On average, between 100 and 150 TPS employees retire or resign each year.

Transitioning officers from using mobile workstations in patrol vehicles to carrying smart devices, with improved technological capabilities.

Disbanding the TAVIS unit and redeploying officers to other service priorities.

Overhauling paid duty so that off-duty officers are used in situations only where their “skills, authorities and training” are necessary.

Using alternative or shared service delivery of court services and parking enforcement, including using more civilians.

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The task force is also recommending a “comprehensive culture change and human resources strategy.” The final report, expected this fall, will explore this more deeply.

The report sharply criticizes the current police service delivery model, calling it an “outdated” one that doesn’t “place communities at the centre of service delivery.”

“Much of the service delivery model is also reactive,” the interim report says, “and does not sufficiently distinguish situations that require an immediate response to ensure personal safety from non-emergencies such as noise and animal control.”

The task force also recommends reviewing shift scheduling, or use of a compressed work week. The “current approach requires a consistent deployment, regardless of the time of day or demand patterns,” which may “limit the Service’s ability to deploy resources more flexibly.”

Also recommended for review is the nighttime two-officer-per-car policy, mirroring the approach taken by other leading police services.

Changes to both shift scheduling and the two-officer policy are highly contentious, and would require a negotiated change to the collective agreement with the police union. Both have purportedly been under study for more than a decade, with no changes in sight.

Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, said officers, already running from call to call, are not opposed to reform but are “very uneasy” about the impact of the proposals.

“They (officers) are concerned about public safety and they (that task force) want to do with 450 less police officers? I'm really looking forward to seeing how they propose to do that."

The Transformational Task Force was formed in February after city council passed a motion urging the force to adopt radical cost-saving measures proposed in a KPMG consultant’s report.

The task force includes six Toronto police representatives and community members, including former councillor David Soknacki; former city auditor general Jeff Griffiths, Michelle DiEmanuele, president and CEO of Trillium Health Partners; TPSB member Ken Jeffers; and Sevaun Palvetzian, CEO at Civic Action.