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Instead, right at 6 a.m., protesters beheld a slow trickle of officers. First, patrol cars blocked off the surrounding streets, police tow trucks cleared the road of cars and three buses of officers took up position. For between 10 and 20 minutes, officers gathered on the fringes of the park in regular uniforms with badge numbers and name tags clear visible. Protesters asked their names and the officers responded, often with a “sir.”

“You don’t want to give them any surprise; no jumping out, no booms, no bangs,” said Hal Cunningham, a retired Toronto Police staff sergeant.

Much like similar camp-clearances in London, Ont., Ottawa and New York City, police timed their operation for the early morning. “Your heart rate’s down, your blood pressure’s down, you’re tired, you’re hungry, and it was a cold damp night. It was a good time to go in,” said Mr. Summerville, a nine-year veteran of the Toronto Police Public Safety Unit.

Before driving to the operation, police would have been “primed,” says Mr. Summerville. “You set the stage for what you’re going to experience and what you’re representing — you’re representing the City of Toronto and every word you say the media’s going to pick up on,” he said. Indeed, it could only take one veiled threat or insult to derail the calm of the operation — particularly when officers faced so much scrutiny.

The park hummed with radio, TV and print reporters. In a strange twist, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was on scene before police even stepped into the park. The SIU is only called out to incidents “where someone has been seriously injured, dies or alleges sexual assault.” Typically, the SIU does not preemptively stake out a police operation.