As the force continues to face criticism for conducting “far too many strip searches,” a new Toronto police report has endorsed a long-term plan to install $250,000-per-unit body scanners across the service, saying the x-ray technology commonly used in jails will increase “dignity and respect” of anyone facing an intrusive search.

In a report filed in advance of Thursday’s Toronto police board meeting, Chief Mark Saunders says a recent six-month pilot project testing the scanners at a downtown police division was a success, both for police and those being scanned.

The full-body scans — which detect metal, plastic and other items outside or hidden inside a body — were used as an alternative to a strip search, in which a person must undress to be inspected by an officer. The pilot project, which ended in April, found the vast majority of people being scanned preferred that method to a physical strip search.

But critics question why police want to invest in new technology — which cost at least $250,000 per unit, plus maintenance, training and possible facility renovation fees — rather than address why officers are strip-searching so many people to begin with.

According to a scathing report released in March by the province’s police watchdog, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), Toronto police conducted strip searches in 40 per cent of arrests between 2014 and 2016, a rate 40 times higher than in comparable services in Ottawa and Hamilton.

A landmark 2001 Supreme Court ruling established that strip searches are “inherently humiliating and degrading,” should only be done when there are reasonable grounds, not as a matter of course.

“Why is our police force so unwilling to change its behaviour? Does it really think its role is to humiliate and demean as many of those it arrests as possible?” asked John Sewell, with the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, in a letter to the board this week.

Sewell urged the board to halt a planned second phase of pilot project, funded by the province, “and either return the money to the provincial government, or use that money for more useful public projects.”

Michael Bryant, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, called the technology a “distraction” from the Toronto police’s “alarming rate” of strip-searching — “and the police board should not fall for it.”

“The technology itself is just invasive in a different way, because it renders the person disrobed electronically as opposed to physically, which may be an improvement in degree but not in kind,” Bryant said in an interview Wednesday.

The force’s “obsession” with strip-searching “would be bizarre if it weren’t so harmful to people,” he added, saying the service has not provided a reason why it searches people it arrests at such a high rate.

Meaghan Gray, a spokesperson for the Toronto police, said in an email that the full-body scan pilot project has prompted the service to review its procedure on strip searches. The service has also delivered training and internal guidance on when a strip search is warranted.

“This may or may not translate into a change in numbers but it’s provided us the opportunity to reinforce our processes with our members,” she said.

Gray has previously told the Star that when done appropriately strip searches can be “a necessary safety requirement that results in the seizure of weapons and drugs which pose a significant risk to the person and those around them.”

According to Saunders’ letter, the project at downtown’s 14 division will continue for another three years, thanks to $497,000 in funding from the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s Community Safety and Policing Grant. The force is now in the middle of a procurement process for a new vendor; his letter to the board does not provide a start date for the second phase.

Saunders’ report is not currently asking for funding, though it acknowledges that future purchases would come from the force’s capital and operating budget.

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There is no imminent plan to implement the scanners elsewhere. But the Toronto police full-body scanner project team recommends that, long term, the technology be installed “at each central lock-up facility within the service.”

The report states that could be as many as 10 potential sites, though Gray said the service is “not committing to a number because we don’t know what ‘service wide’ will look like a year from now.” That’s due in part to possible changes to the number of police stations, as part of the force’s ongoing modernization plan.

In addition to the $250,000-$300,000 cost per unit, the technology requires $20,000 in maintenance as well as the cost of renovation required to fit the machine. Full-body scanners need “a large space in order to accommodate the hardware and the radiation exclusion zone, which is required to ensure that persons involved in the scanning process are not irradiated by the scanner,” according to the report.

Before the launch of the pilot project, Toronto police consulted with Ontario’s Information & Privacy Commissioner and obtained legal opinions from Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General. As a result, the policy prevents certain people from being scanned, including pregnant women. That’s due to the radiation, though the report states the level is safe, akin to one hour in the sunlight or eating two bananas.

Youth are also excluded because the scan creates “a saved image where the faint outline of genitalia can be seen,” the report notes.

According to Toronto police, the officer who conducts and views the scan is the same gender as the person being scanned. Transgender people have the option to choose a full-body scan or a strip search and can choose whether either search is conducted by male, female or both officers.

During the pilot project, the images were stored on the scanner’s hard drive and accessible to all operators, though only supervisors or administrators could copy or save the image. All scans, regardless of whether anything was found, were retained for 90 days, though Saunders’ report notes that the future retention period has not yet been settled.

According to the report, 594 strip searches were approved in the duration of the six-month pilot project. Just over half of those, 311, were conducted via the full-body scan while the rest were done as physical searches.

Of the 311 people scanned, 296 said they had previously been strip-searched; of those, 95 per cent said they preferred the scan, according to the report. Between Sept. 10 and Oct. 31, the body scan detected a knife, a crack pipe, safety pins and heroin wrapped in toilet paper inside someone’s buttocks, the report states.

A survey of Toronto police officers showed 80 per cent had a positive opinion about the full-body scanner technology.

The Toronto police board is scheduled to discuss the full-body scanners at its meeting Thursday.

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis

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