Many of you know that discussion around public services is a pet issue of mine,
https://www.torontopolice.on.ca/TheWayForward/files/action-plan.pdf
This is happening, thanks chiefly to the political capital that our excellent Mayor John Tory has. CBC Toronto is now covering it, albeit from an anecdotal angle: cops are stressed, short-staffed etc. I am hoping that they can use some objective data to look at the issue and a real public dialogue can emerge.
Recently the chief reported that they are obliged to assign cops to guard broken water mains ! A little light and common sense on both sides needs to happen. I am hopeful.
The major problem with police is they're too damned expensive. We pay them far too much for what is essentially a low skilled, blue collar job that mainly consists of patrolling, writing traffic tickets, and refereeing arguments. We're also using them instead of social welfare people far too much, especially since cops make WAY more than those in social welfare. We also need traffic wardens to direct traffic. It's idiotic to have a $100k cop directing traffic at intersections whenever the lights go out or whenever there's construction work of some kind.
The other major problem is the goddamn lawyers mean that everything is too complicated and cops wind up sitting on their butts filing out forms much of their time. I remember reading once there were something like two dozen forms to fill out for a drunk driving arrest. Maybe doing what BC is doing and decriminalizing drunk driving is something to consider. I understand those cases use up a huge amount of policing and court time.
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