TORONTO -- Closing the gap between officers and the residents they serve is critical to addressing the mistrust many people feel, a key report on modernizing the Toronto Police Service says.

To drive what it characterizes as transformational change, the report released Thursday urges a major shift in police culture -- a move toward less of a paramilitary structure to one in which officers are expected to show emotional intelligence and problem-solving skills.

"This is not about softer policing," Chief Mark Saunders said. "It's about smarter policing."

The report recommends getting officers out of their cruisers and onto the street, and putting neighbourhood policing at the front and centre of all police work.

"Neighbourhood policing will be the focal point of the service's new service-delivery model," the report states. "It will be incorporated into all aspects of how the service does business."

The report calls for members of the country's largest municipal police force to start their careers pounding the local beat for a year rather than helping respond to emergencies, and minimum three-year neighbourhood assignments later on.

In the future, officers will be expected to demonstrate empathy and an ability to interact and engage collaboratively with residents -- especially those who are marginalized and at-risk populations, the report says.

"It may look a step back in time when officers walked the beat," said Staff-Sgt. Gregory Watts, a member of the panel. "But it worked then and it can work now."

While modern cruisers are equipped with technology that transforms them into mobile offices, the report says, they also create a distance between officers and residents.

To allow officers to leave their cars, the report urges widespread adoption of new "smart mobile devices" that will allow access to needed data, to file reports, and be able to respond to the public without returning to the station.

"Cars are also physical barriers that create a sense of isolation from residents," the report states. "Paper memo books will be a thing of the past."

The task force, co-chaired by Saunders and Andy Pringle, chairman of the police services board, has been a year in the making. While the report wasn't a "budget drill," the city is looking to shave more than $100 million from its $1-billion-plus police budget.

Saunders acknowledged the importance of getting the unions onside if the plan is to work at all but expressed optimism that it would succeed.

The chief rejected the notion that a new controversial video -- in which officers are seen threatening to seize the cellphone of a bystander filming an arrest and saying the man can get AIDS from being spat on -- is an example of what's wrong with the culture.

"I'm not going to take a snapshot incident and say the sky is falling," Saunders said. "That video is not even a remote snapshot of what goes on a day-to-day basis."

Other report recommendations include a moratorium on hiring until 2019, and cutting the use of paid off-duty officers by 30 per cent.

Officers would only be dispatched in emergencies or where their quick presence is deemed essential as a way to cut down on the 445,000 occasions in which police were rushed to a scene last year.

Where urgency is not an issue, a support unit would deal with the problem and, if needed, start a preliminary investigation. People would also be encouraged to file non-urgent reports online or by phone.