Toronto Police Services
| Toronto Police Service | |
|---|---|
Logo of the Toronto Police Service
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| Motto | To Serve and Protect |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1834 |
| Employees | 7,465 (5,235 Police Officers) |
| Annual budget | $1.15 Billion (2015) |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Size | 641 square kilometres (247 sq mi) |
| Population | 2.8 million |
| Governing body | Toronto Police Services Board |
| General nature |
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| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters |
40 College Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Sworn members | 5,235 |
| Unsworn members | 2,230 |
| Elected officer responsible | The Honourable Yasir Naqvi, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services |
| Agency executive | Mark Saunders, Chief of Police |
| Units |
List
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| Boroughs |
List
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| Facilities | |
| Commands | 17 Divisions 12 Transit Districts 10 Housing Police Service Areas |
| Police cars | 1,687 (2015) |
| Police boats | 23 (2015) |
| Horses | 25 (2015) |
| Dogs | 35 German Shepherds 7 Labs |
| Website | |
| www.torontopolice.on.ca | |
| Type | police college |
|---|---|
| Established | 2009 |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Affiliations | Toronto Police Service |
| Website | www.torontopolice.on.ca/ |
40 College Street
The Toronto Police Service is the police force servicing Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1834, it was the first municipal police service created in North America and one of the oldest police services in the English-speaking world. It is the largest municipal police service in Canada and third largest police force in Canada after the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
At a budget of over $1 billion, it ranks second to the Toronto Transit Commission in the budgetary expenses of the municipal government of Toronto.
The Toronto Police Service was founded in 1834 when the city of Toronto was first created from the town of York. (Prior to that, local able-bodied male citizens were required to report for night duty as special constables for a fixed number of nights a year on the pain of fine or imprisonment in a system known as "watch and ward".)
The Toronto Police is one of the English-speaking world’s oldest modern municipal police departments; older than, for example, the New York City Police Department which was formed in 1845 or the Boston Police Department which was established in 1839. The London Metropolitan Police of 1829 is generally recognized as the first modern municipal department. In 1835, Toronto retained five full-time constables—a ratio of about one officer for every 1,850 citizens. Their daily pay was set at 5 shillings for day duty and 7 shillings, 6 pence, for night duty. In 1837 the constables’ annual pay was fixed at £75 per annum, a lucrative city position when compared to the mayor’s annual pay of £250 at the time.
From 1834 to 1859, the Toronto Police was a corrupt and notoriously political force with its constables loyal to the local aldermen who personally appointed police officers in their own wards for the duration of their incumbency. Toronto constables on numerous occasions suppressed opposition candidate meetings and took sides during bitter sectarian violence between Orange Order and Irish Catholic radical factions in the city. A provincial government report in 1841 described the Toronto Police as "formidable engines of oppression". Although constables were issued uniforms in 1837, one contemporary recalled that the Toronto Police was "without uniformity, except in one respect—they were uniformly slovenly." After an excessive outbreak of street violence involving Toronto Police misconduct, including an episode where constables brawled with Toronto's firemen in one incident, and stood by doing nothing in another incident while enraged firemen burned down a visiting circus when its clowns jumped a lineup at a local brothel, the entire Toronto Police force, along with its chief, were fired in 1859.
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