John Reid, president of the Toronto Police Association, which represents 8,000 police officers and civilians.
Emergency calls for police service went up 18 per cent between September 2022 and 2023 and it takes on average 22 minutes to respond to the highest priority call, according to the Toronto police association.
Association president John Reid said the wait time is longer in 18 of 25 wards in the City of Toronto.
Reid said things are so bad on the force that some units may have to be disbanded and most of the time there are longer waits for 911 calls.
“Sixty per cent of the time, there are no units immediately available to respond to an emergency,” he said.
The Association say lack of funds could mean the disbanding of Drug Squad or Traffic Unit, or Community Officers.
“A recent poll by Abacus Data found that more than half of Torontonians believe the current level of policing does not meet the city’s safety needs,” Reid told a budget committee as he requested more funding for police, which has a budget of $1.17 billion.
He said almost 70 per cent of city residents believe that increasing the number of frontline officers is key to enhancing city safety and 71 per cent want a properly-funded and well-resourced police service.
He head of the association said more cops are needed to tackle record high hate crimes or car thefts in the city.
“The residents of Toronto deserve better and without the appropriate investment in policing, the current situation will get worse,” Reid said.
He told the committee that police underfunding has led to the disbanding of most Divisional Community Response Units and the Drug Squad.
“Next may be traffic enforcement and neighbourhood officers,” he said. “Our current staffing levels are unacceptable.”
Reid said since 2010, Toronto has grown by 460,000 people, which is a 13 per cent increase in the population while the number of police officers has declined by almost 600.
Police have patrolled more than 300 protests since the war in the Middle East and investigated a record amount of hate crimes and made dozens of arrests.
The association said when residents call 911 many times they are placed on hold.
“And even if they are not on hold – imagine having to wait 22 minutes for someone to show up,” he said. “This is the reality in Toronto today and the criminals know it.”
He said more cops are needed to deal with the record number of hate crimes, protests and car thefts taking place in the city.
Association spokesperson Meaghan Gray said Toronto Police requested a budget increase of $20 million, which was approved by the Police Services Board on December 19.
“The City has put forward its budget proposal which includes an increase of just under $8 million for police, almost $13 million shy of what the Service requested and the Board approved,” Gray said.
The association represents almost 8,000 police and civilian members of the Toronto Police Service.