You know what “hurts policing efforts”? You know what “undermines confidence in the police”?

A police force that is not openly accountable to the people it serves. A police force where investigations into possible or alleged misconduct are kept secret. A system in which police themselves participate in a de facto “no snitching” code and do not co-operate with investigations of possible or alleged crimes.

Those are the kinds of problems that will help make the public sour on police, and therefore make it harder for the police to do their jobs. Those were the problems, among others, that provincial Bill 175, parts of which were supposed to come into force June 30, was meant to address.

But hold on. Here comes newly elected Premier Doug Ford, riding a wave of rollback-mania which sees him reversing seemingly every law democratically passed by the government that preceded his. Ticket scalping controls? Rolled back. Cap and trade? Scrapped. Chief scientist? Fired. Gas taxes? Rolled back. Environmental programs? Cancelled.

And a law to fix a broken system of police accountability through the Ontario Special Investigations Act? “Not proceeding,” Ford said, in a letter sent directly to Ontario police associations — the cop unions — until the government finishes conducting “a full and thorough review of the legislation by consulting with experts, police services and the public.” This move was reported by my colleague Wendy Gillis on Wednesday, discovered days after the law was supposed to be in effect.

Why? The legislation they are spiking was the result of a sweeping police oversight review conducted by Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Michael Tulloch, which spent a year reviewing the situation, involving 17 public consultation sessions, 1,500 interviews and 130 private meetings.

Read more:

Opinion | Vicky Mochama: Toronto’s vulnerable communities need better services, not more police

Premier Doug Ford puts new police oversight laws on hold

Doug Ford freezes salaries of public service managers, orders review of executive pay

Premier Ford, apparently, thinks more talk is needed. Perhaps it’s a case of Ford not liking what the consultations, experts, police services and public said the last time around. Keep on turning the dial until you find the song you were hoping to hear, I guess.

As Gillis reported, the police union leaders had told their members over the weekend that they had been lobbying Ford not to implement parts of the new law and had found him receptive. In his letter to them, Ford said, “Law abiding people in this province should never feel unsafe when dealing with the people who protect us. And Ontario’s hard-working police officers deserve to be treated with respect.”

He’s right about that. But the thing is, the measures in this bill were a step towards restoring and strengthening the trust and respect he’s talking about. A culture of secrecy that reinforces the perception that police are unaccountable and above the law breeds mistrust. It builds disrespect for the institution.

And that is indeed a toxic situation.

That police are citizens who require the consent, trust and co-operation of their fellow citizens is the most basic principle of professional policing in democratic societies, including Canada. This was codified in Sir Robert Peel’s famous nine principles almost 200 years ago, and has been adopted and adapted here pretty much ever since.

The principles are not some airy-fairy boy scout wish for good behaviour for its own sake. They are a practical necessity. Recently I read a Washington Post investigation of jurisdictions in the United States where many murders occur and few (less than a third in many places) are solved. In diagnosing the problem, police themselves in those jurisdictions often chalked it up to a lack of community co-operation.

“The lack of co-operation is what we battle the most,” Deputy Chief Chris Bailey of the Indianapolis Police told the Post about a neighbourhood called Crown Hill, where 40 killings in the past decade have resulted in only 12 arrests.

You hear the same from Toronto police, often, when they are investigating a crime, pleading with the public to help share information.

The need for this trust is especially important at a time like this, when a surge in shootings leaves the city fearful. That’s when police most need a community willing to trust and co-operate — qualities that come from feeling the police are on their side, serving and protecting them above all.

A community co-operates when it believes it can trust the police.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Measures to ensure police accountability, and transparency in providing that accountability, encourage trust. They build respect. They help ensure co-operation.

These sorts of measures, the ones in Bill 175, make it easier for the police to do their job of serving and protecting the public. They would help, not hurt, policing efforts. It would encourage, not undermine, public confidence in police.

Halting their implementation is a step back, both for the Ontario public, and for the police entrusted to serve us.

Read more about: