After visiting a friend at a downtown hospital last month, Toby Nicol stopped on his way out to make a call from a courtesy phone. Suddenly he was surrounded by four burly hospital security guards who demanded to know what he was doing.

“Before I knew it, they had handcuffed me and called police,” said Nicol, 35, a peer leader at St. Stephen’s Community House, which works with homeless and marginally-housed people in Toronto’s downtown core.

“They checked to see if I had a warrant. I was charged with trespassing and given a ticket. It was very humiliating,” he said, adding he plans to fight the $65 fine.

As a former homeless person who still struggles with alcoholism, anxiety and depression, Nicol said this latest run-in with police has given him a taste of what the people he mentors face every day.

“We are in Canada. I just feel Toronto — especially the Toronto police — is failing us. I don’t want us to become like the United States,” said Nicol, who is black and has been horrified by recent race-based clashes with police south of the border.

“It’s not that hard to be kind,” he added.

A call for more compassion and understanding from police is among the recommendations gathered in a recent survey of drop-in users Nicol helped design as part of St. Stephen’s member advocacy committee.

Committee members, who surveyed 47 homeless and marginally housed people between June and October about their treatment by police, plan to present their findings at the final public meeting of the Toronto Police Transformational Task Force on Saturday afternoon at city hall.

“The Toronto police say they want to change the way they engage with people,” Nicol said. “They could start by treating us better. Somebody who is supposed to be protecting my city calls me a crazy person, a drunk, a drama queen, uses homophobic and racial language. It brings us down.”

Several survey respondents who had been arrested said police called them “drunken Indian” or “drunk-ass native.”

The task force, co-chaired by Chief Mark Saunders and Toronto Police Services Board chair Andy Pringle, released an interim report last June with 24 recommendations to modernize policing in the city. The task force is expected to release its final report by the end of the year.

About 90 per cent of drop-in users in the survey said they had been arrested for minor infractions, often more than once.

At least 60 per cent said they had been “carded” by police, a practice that involves stopping, questioning and documenting people not suspected of a crime. Research shows carding disproportionately targets young, black men.

Of those who were arrested, 43 per cent said their rights were not respected by police and about one-quarter said they were treated “very badly.”

As advocacy committee member Derek George noted, “If you ask police: ‘Why are you bothering me?’ You are face down in the dirt.”

“Most people who have interactions with police have mental health issues, physical health issues, they are hungry and homeless. They have nowhere to go, so they are visible all the time,” noted George, 56, who moved into his own apartment six months ago after being homeless on and off for almost 10 years.

When police hand out tickets to people for “loitering,” “trespassing,” “panhandling,” and “drinking in a public place,” they exploit a person’s homelessness and further burden people already struggling, he added.

Committee member Susan Scholfield, 55, who lives in the supportive housing building where Andrew Loku was shot by police in July 2015, said officers need more training on how to deal with people in mental distress.

“When they come, they come prepared to stomp on you, if not kill you,” she said. “Andrew was my neighbour. Yes, everybody in the building has their issues, but police should be more understanding.”

Toronto police Staff Sgt. James Hogan, a task force member who has seen the survey results, said some of the comments are “absolutely troubling.”

As part of the task force’s work, Hogan is scheduled to meet with the St. Stephen’s group next Thursday.

“We are looking for input,” Hogan said. “There are groups in society that are in more frequent contact with police than others — and I suggest that this is one of them — so they probably have levels of insight and expertise that most people don’t have.”

Hogan is particularly interested in getting the group’s views about the task force’s proposal to expand its neighbourhood policing model across the city so that every community has dedicated officers.

“When officers have a close focus on the neighbourhood, they get to know people that much better, whether it is the person who owns the high-end store or the person on the street and everyone in between,” he said. “It’s that local knowledge and feel for the local situation that can make a difference.”

Voices from the street:

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Personal stories shared in the survey from homeless and precariously-housed people who were arrested by Toronto police.

Beat me and called me drunk-ass native.

My face was dashed on the cement.

Roughed me up, put me down but didn’t charge me, happens often.

When I was arrested, the police were very respectful . . . brought me to the hospital where they did not even handcuff me until I was released . . . they even brought me out for cigarettes.

Strip searched TWICE.

Demanded ID for just hanging out on the street.

Carded every day.

Recommendations on what police can do differently:

Be more tolerant.

Be more aware of mental health issues.

Talk before arresting you and find out what’s up.

Treat all people fairly.

Treat people like humans and not treat them like just a suspect.

Learn to show compassion for people.