Toronto’s Mayor John Tory announced Tuesday the Toronto Police Service’s budget request of an additional $48.3 million, which will add 200 police officers to Canada’s biggest city.
If the budget is approved, the 200 new police officers would include 162 officers added to priority response units, with 25 of those officers just for the downtown core. Major case management would gain 22 more officers. The neighbourhood policing program would gain an additional 16 officers to expand the program beyond the 52 neighbourhoods that currently have dedicated community police officers.
The mayor said instead of police “arriving with the lights and sirens after something has happened,” the service would have officers working a beat in the same neighbourhood for years. The residents become “comfortable … they see somebody walking a beat, who they know by name, who knows them by name, who gets to know the kids, who gets to earn their trust.”…