Mark Saunders, the first black leader of the largest municipal police service in Canada, says he wants to continue community discussions about the controversial issue of carding, poised to be the most political and divisive challenge he will take on in the first days of his tenure.

Saunders, a 32-year Toronto police veteran, was officially named the next Toronto chief of police at a news conference at Toronto police headquarters Monday, flanked by Toronto Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) and Toronto Police Services Board chair, Alok Mukherjee.

Tory said the decision to name Saunders chief was a difficult one, given the high-calibre pool of candidates. But in the end the choice was unanimous by the seven-member board.

Saunders, currently a deputy chief within the force, takes the reins April 26 from current Chief Bill Blair, who leaves a police service struggling to contain costs and in the midst of the ongoing controversy over racial profiling and police tactic of ‘carding.’

Asked for his take on carding — the police tactic of stopping, questioning and documenting encounters with the public, a practice disproportionately affects black young men — Saunders said “at the end of the day, community safety is the most important thing,” but he said he wants to have more conversations with community members concerned about the effect of carding.

Asked directly if he was open to eliminating carding, Saunders, 52, said: “I’m open to whatever is going to be best for the city,” he said.

Saunders, who is of Jamaican heritage, said he first realized the importance of becoming the first black police chief of the service when he told his son about being named chief.

“It resonated with me when I told my son. He said, ‘Dad, that’s history.’”

But the chief designate was realistic about what he could accomplish immediately simply because he is black.

“I think as the first black chief it’s important to make sure that I have the skills necessary to qualify for it, and I think I do,” Saunders said. “Being black is fantastic (but) it doesn’t give me super powers. If you’re expecting that all of a sudden the Earth will open up and miracles will happen, that’s not going to happen.”

The Jamaican native, a married father of four, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice Studies from Guelph Humber University.

“I can’t begin to tell you how honoured and excited I am to have this opportunity to work with you and with the Toronto police service,” he said. “To say that I’m excited about this opportunity would be an understatement.”

Saunders is currently in charge of Specialized Operations Command, where he oversees 1,200 police officers, 164 civilian members and a budget of $175 million. He has previously served in wide-ranging areas in the force, including the urban street gang unit, intelligence division, drug squad, Emergency Task Force unit and was unit commander of the homicide squad. He is credited with creating the investigative cybercrime unit, C3.

The Toronto Police Services Board, the seven-member civilian board that hires the chief, considered candidates outside the force. But the true race was always rumoured to be between Saunders and fellow deputy chief, Peter Sloly.

At the conference, John Tory emphasized the thoroughness of the board’s selection process, saying there were six candidates winnowed down to three, who were then subject to an intense additional interview process. Tory thanked the two other main internal candidates, Sloly and the third Toronto deputy chief, Mike Federico.

“We are fortunate, and we are proud, that the new chief will have such distinguished and very accomplished deputies. They will work well with our new chief, and will keep Toronto police service one of the world’s finest.”

Saunders was said to be the preferred choice of the Toronto Police Association, which represents the roughly 5,500 uniformed and 2,500 civilian members.

Sloly, 48, has risen quickly through the management ranks, apparently prompting concerns the rank-and-file may doubt his understanding of the average officer’s job. By comparison, Saunders is seen to have extensive boots-on-the-ground policing experience, including stints as an undercover drug cop, head of homicide and with the force’s elite Emergency Task Force unit, where he became the first black sergeant.

Critics of Sloly claim he is a power hungry leader who doesn’t work well with others, while Saunders has a bridge-building management style.

Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, said he and his members were looking forward to working with Saunders. Responding the suggestions Saunders had been the preferred candidate of his membership — and that may have tipped the scales in the new chief’s’ favour — McCormack said: “Whether he was or wasn’t, we were not involved in the process.”

“It was a very strong pool of candidates, a very strong and qualified field. (Saunders) got there on his own qualifications, his own merit. This guy did it on his own.”

Among Saunders first comments Monday was acknowledging criticisms he isn’t as well known amongst the community, or as high profile, as Sloly or previous chiefs. Saunders said he is hoping to build up a rapport with citizens in the coming days.

“There were some community members who were fair in saying they wanted to support me but they didn’t know me. I look forward to getting to know you, and having discussions.”

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Saunders inherits a force struggling with ballooning costs — the 2015 operating budget is more than $1 billion. In 2005, when Blair took over as chief, the budget was $708.3 million.

But the biggest challenge at the outset of Saunders’ tenure is likely to be the divisive issue of ‘carding.’ The Toronto police practice of stopping, questioning and documenting civilians disproportionately targets young brown and black men. At a heated meeting Thursday, the Toronto Police Services Board made the controversial decision to adopt a carding policy critics said did not contain vital citizen safeguards that the board demanded last year.

In an interview with the Star in 2013, Saunders defended carding as “a valuable tool,” but also indicated he was open to change.

“We’re doing this 370,000 times (a year) on average,” Saunders said at the time. “And out of the 370,000 times I’m going to suggest that we do it well. And the focus and direction, hopefully, is how do we do it better.”

Saunders is also taking over a police service experiencing an identity crisis of sorts. Last July, when the police board opted not to extend Blair’s contract for another two years, Mukherjee said the force needed transformational change.

Mukherjee, who remains board chair until 2016, said the “traditional model” of policing — involving uniformed police officers whose training centres around use of force — had outlived its utility and relevance.

“The need out there has changed,” he said, noting that officers are increasingly dealing with the safety of young people, domestic violence issues, and people suffering mental health issues. His vision of a new policing system, he said, includes an organizational shift involving youth workers, domestic violence workers and social workers.

Outgoing chief Blair departs from the service on April 25, 10 years to his first day as chief.

In the final weeks of the selection process, organizations within the city’s black community began raising concerns — and skepticism — about the emphasis placed on the national and international nature of the board’s search, while there were two qualified black internal candidates, Sloly and Saunders.

“There is a creeping chorus of cynicism setting in within the African Canadian community,” wrote Margaret Parsons and Anthony Morgan, with the African Canadian Legal Clinic (ACLC), in a March editorial in the Star. “Many African Canadians are convinced that the TPSB is imminently poised to send the message to the community that no matter how qualified and talented, in 2015, an African Canadian is not permitted to serve as police chief of the world’s most diverse city.”

But while generally supportive of the candidacies of both Saunders and Sloly, some within Toronto’s black community still see Saunders as too sympathetic the policing establishment, and less likely to advocate for real reform. In an interview last week, Parsons said she had concerns Saunders would not be as open to ending or limiting carding as Sloly.

In early March, a coalition of Toronto organizations — including the ACLC, the Association of Black Law Enforcers and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists — endorsed Sloly in a letter to Mukherjee and Toronto Mayor John Tory.

No other known contender has publicly matched or surpassed Sloly’s willingness to discuss the critical issues in policing that have “the most disproportionate and detrimental impacts on the African Canadian community,” the letter stated.

“These include carding, racial profiling, police use of force, the school to prison pipeline, the general victimization of the community by gangs, guns, drugs and hate crimes... We believe that no other candidate is able to address both our community’s and Toronto’s needs better than Deputy Chief Sloly.”

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