The embattled mayor, who is the subject of an ongoing police investigation, will present awards celebrating community safety on Thursday.

Mayor Rob Ford will be joined by Insp. Randy Carter, who heads the Toronto police’s customer service excellence unit, to present five awards for “remarkable safety projects.” Each project will be given $1,000 in sponsored prize money.

Since May of last year, the force’s homicide unit — under the direction of top investigation Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux — has been investigating Ford, his associates and the video showing the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

This March, Chief Bill Blair announced the OPP would assume oversight of the so-called Project Brazen 2 investigation.

That decision, which included a formal request by Chief Bill Blair to outgoing OPP commissioner Chris Lewis, came after the chief came under fire by the Ford brothers who have accused Blair of mismanaging taxpayer funds for the investigation and of conspiracy in his alleged support of mayoral candidate John Tory.

Then in April, Ford declared his name had been cleared after confusion over whether the investigation and the OPP’s involvement in it would continue.

“I know I did nothing wrong. I knew the day was going to come that I’d be cleared and I guess today’s the day,” Ford told reporters on CP24.

The Toronto police maintain an investigation, which saw the arrest of Ford friend and alleged drug dealer Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, is ongoing.

On Tuesday, the service responded to questions about the mayor participating in Thursday’s event with one of their members.

“Inspector Carter is honoured to be representing the Toronto Police Service at this event; a very worthwhile initiative appropriately recognizing community safety and crime prevention programs across the city,” wrote spokesperson Meaghan Gray in an email. “We are pleased to participate. We will not comment regarding the Mayor’s attendance.”

Carter was previous stationed at 31 Division in North York.

The awards are not the first time the optics of Ford’s interactions with police have raised questions.

In November, Ford claimed his invitation attend the chief’s annual fundraising gala was withdrawn, while police claimed the mayor was not attending but not uninvited.

The awards, which began in 2002 according to the city’s website, honour projects that promote safety, tolerance and “reduce violence within high-risk communities,” a release said.

The mayor has traditionally fought against community safety grants — what he has referred to as “hug a thug” programs — at City Hall and is sometimes the lone dissenter.

In April, Ford was the only person to vote against a motion to fund 16 organizations with a total of $450,000 for community recreation programs for youth in priority neighbourhoods.

According to police documents, which have not been proved in court, Ford allegedly spent time with several accused drug and gun smugglers of the alleged Dixon City Bloods gang in Etobicoke. A photo of Ford outside what police called a known crack house — where the mayor’s friends Fabio and Elena Basso live — shows him with his arms around three men. One of those men, Anthony Smith, was shot and killed last year. Two others — Monir Kassim and Muhammad Khattak are both charged in Project Traveller.

Awards were not given out in 2013, when the mayor’s activities first came under police scrutiny. Ford was slated to hand out the awards in 2012, according to the city’s website.

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City spokesperson John Gosgnach said Ford has confirmed his attendance for Thursday and there are is no issue with his participation. He said Thursday’s announcement combine awards for 2013 and 2014.

“It has been a tradition since 2002 that the Mayor has annually recognized 5 outstanding projects that contribute to community safety in Toronto,” he wrote in an email. “The organizers do not have any concerns.”

This year’s award ceremony will take place in the Rotunda at city hall.