My, what a difference a few bumpy years can make. Approaching his third year as Toronto’s top cop, chief Mark Saunders suddenly finds himself surrounded by critics and doubters alike. It seems like just yesterday when, amid pomp and pageantry, he was feted as the city’s first Black police chief. But as B.B. King famously said, the thrill is gone, and now Saunders is in a fight for his professional reputation, some say his job.

What happened?

In the midst of the Toronto Police Association’s current no-confidence campaign against him, it’s important to remember how and why Saunders got the opportunity to lead Canada’s largest police force.

Recall that he was selected by the Toronto Police Services Board over another worthy opponent — former deputy chief Peter Sloly, who at the time was considered the changemaker candidate. Sloly was the charismatic white-shirt who possessed both the media savvy and the gift of gab needed to convince the public of a bold vision for modernized policing. He had spent years preparing for the top post and many people, particularly those in the Black community, thought it was his moment.

But it wasn’t meant to be. In the end, Sloly’s star shone a little too brightly, and his ambitions to lead the Toronto Police Service in an innovative direction were passed on for Saunders, a safer and more reliable set of hands.

This outcome was the result of a fair amount of fancy stick handling at the police board.

Mayor John Tory had strategically placed himself there just prior to the important hiring decision. Eventually, former police board chair and unabashed Sloly supporter, Alok Mukherjee, was shown the door. The mayor’s long-time friend, Andy Pringle, replaced him.

This cleared the path for Saunders, a cop’s cop who was proclaimed as a no-frills grunt who climbed the ranks and received the all-important backing of the police association. He was someone who could lead the service’s 5,000 officers without scaring everybody off. Status-quo policing was in full effect. The police board and the union got the man they wanted as chief.

But that was then.

Fast forward to today, and the game has shifted significantly. Policing has come under immense pressure to transform. While overall crime rates continue to trend downward, it has become harder for police to justify their billion dollar budgets. Toronto’s City Council has demanded cost efficiencies. If other public sectors are being asked to find them, why not the police?

Meanwhile, law enforcement experts say that effective policing in our complex society requires new modes of operation and fresh thinking. As of late, the policing file in Toronto has become exceedingly challenging, with unsolved homicides and poor community-relations as central issues. Strong leadership is needed. But judging by his comments to media yesterday in which he effectively blamed community residents for failures to detect alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur earlier on, the chief seems increasingly out of his depth.

What will policing look like moving forward?

Police will need to deploy resources in smarter ways, leveraging all of the flexibility and efficiencies technologies offer. They will shed some of the traditional tasks they performed in the past and maintain a more visible presence in neighbourhoods. The same forces of automation and digitization that have reduced the number of bank tellers will decrease the overall number of police stations and officers without sacrificing public safety. Not surprisingly, the police union is worried about job losses, but there’s no going back to outdated models.

Given all of this, the job of police chief requires a strong communicator who projects confidence in the face of substantive change. Police leaders have to reassure the public that while the future may look different, it will be worth it. These are the critical job requirements.

At the root of the current crisis in police leadership is the matter of trust. This has often been in short supply when it comes to our city’s police chiefs.

Under Julian Fantino we got bluster and denials even though everyone knew racism existed in policing. With Bill Blair we heard a lot about community policing but got his staunch support for trust-killing programs like TAVIS and carding nonetheless. Mark Saunders talks up transformation but we’ve witnessed worsening community relations, low homicide clearance rates and now police families in uproar under his watch. If we can’t rely on the chiefs to be straightforward and trustworthy, how will the public restore their broken trust in the cop who walks the beat?

Part of the problem with Saunders is that he has trouble reading the trade winds. He wants to implement a community policing agenda that is diverse and inclusive, yet he refused to speak with Black Lives Matter activists who camped out beneath his office for two weeks. Instead, he tripped over his standard issue boots last week to meet police families the moment they showed up at headquarters to express concerns that their loved ones are overworked and under appreciated. This selective public engagement sends the wrong message to the people of Toronto. It shows the chief views some communities as being more important than others.

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With all of its trumpeted emerging world class status, Toronto should have first-rate police leaders who are capable of communicating the future of policing. But it doesn’t. Rather, we have leaders who look increasingly staid and inept at a time when new approaches are needed. All of this has resulted in the growing lack of confidence in the chief. But that’s partly unfair. He wasn’t meant to be a trailblazer.

Neil Price is a doctoral student at OISE and the author of the Community Assessment of Police Practices (CAPP) report on carding.

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