Calling Out Excessive Pedestrian Street Policing

All right, folks! We need to talk about the excessive policing in this city! Especially when it comes to pedestrian streets, open streets, and other street events.

Back in late June, the Toronto Star and other media outlets published reports stating that the Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot costs more than tripled to $500,000; about $300,000 of which was used for policing and security costs. If that didn’t sound bad enough, the Toronto Police Service originally requested $3 million for a 24/7 police presence there!

When I focused on open streets over the past year, I noticed security costs were a major part of past OpenStreetsTO events, as well as for street festivals and other events across this city.  When you have a bloated police budget of $1.4 billion and organizations still need to fork over significant sums for paid duty officers for their events, Torontonians – including Mayor Olivia Chow and City Councillors – need to start asking why this is even necessary! 

While there are legitimate security concerns as evident by last year’s Lapu Lapu tragedy in Vancouver and last month’s Salsa on St. Clair shooting which saw the local Hillcrest BIA withdraw their support, Montréal was able to host pedestrian streets with little to no police presence. A fellow advocate and former NYC resident advised me that open streets in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights also didn’t require policing. However, it should be clarified that NYC’s Open Streets refer to pedestrian streets whereas their closest equivalent to OpenStreetsTO is Summer Streets.

A staff member in Councillor Josh Matlow’s office informed me that the lack of a pedestrian streets program meant the Church Street pilot ended up being treated as a street event, which required jumping through so many hoops. A motion from Councillors Matlow and Chris Moise on developing such a program for next summer was successful at the June City Council meeting which would aim to provide predictability, structure, and streamlined governance. However, there will be a need for Torontonians to ask candidates for public office to support this pedestrian streets program (and open streets), as well as how they plan to address high policing costs at such events. Especially with the candidate nomination deadline of Friday, August 21 fast approaching and voters more likely to tune in after the Labour Day long weekend.

While there are likely many other examples to justify the need for police reform in Toronto and there were calls to defund the police when the Black Lives Matter movement re-emerged in Summer 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, there are two main obstacles. The first is Section 31(4) of Ontario’s Police Services Act, which states that the police services board “shall not direct the chief of police with respect to specific operational decisions or with respect to the day-to-day operation of the police force.” The second obstacle is the Ontario Civilian Police Commission which has the power to oversee police budget disputes in the event the city approves an amount lower than what was approved by the Toronto Police Services Board. Not to mention, the so-called “strong mayor powers” the Ford government approved in 2022 can’t be used for police budgets. Mayor Olivia Chow attempted to reduce the police budget increase by $12.6 million in 2024, but ended up backtracking due to bullying tactics from the Toronto Police Association and Police Chief Myron Demkiw.

Given these obstacles to police reform and the negative impacts the police have had on street events and other matters, I have one burning question. How the fuck are we supposed to rein in the Toronto Police Service?

While I am aware that members of the public can depute in front of the Toronto Police Services Board, there are others out there who are far more knowledgeable about police reform than I am. If you are one such police reform advocate, I would love to hear your insights on reining in policing costs while addressing recent security incidents, so please drop a note in the comments or send an e-mail.

Normally, I rarely weigh in on policing matters. However, when they are an obstacle to a cause you are focused on – in this case pedestrian streets, open streets, and other street events – there is a need to shift some focus to them to move your cause forward. As Mayor Chow stated following the shooting, “We will not let reckless criminals stop Toronto’s tradition of outdoor street festivals.”