Ontario’s inspector general of policing has confirmed an independent review of alleged police corruption
The inspection will cover the province’s 45 police forces
Ontario’s inspector general of policing announced today that as expected, he will order an independent review of alleged police corruption, after it was reported that a group of current and former GTA police officers were charged in connection to alleged organized crime activity.
An investigation called Project South found that the accused Toronto officers unlawfully accessed personal information and shared it with organized crime contacts, who carried out shootings and other violent crimes, including an attack at the home of a corrections management staff member.
Related: Olivia Chow says police officers found guilty of crime “deserve to be thrown in jail”
One of the alleged organized crime contacts has connections to the tow truck industry, according to police.
Though Premier Doug Ford suggested the allegations were due to every organization having “a few bad apples,” the Toronto Police Service Board and Toronto Police Service chief Myron Demkiw requested an independent review last week. (Ford also called the allegations “disturbing.”)
“I am announcing an independent province-wide inspection into the ability of Ontario’s police services and boards to prevent, detect, respond to and fortify their organizations against corruption and ensure integrity,” Ryan Teschner told reporters today.
“Incidents like these understandably shake public trust in policing more broadly, and it’s important to acknowledge the real questions the public is asking, and the potential effect these questions may have on their confidence in Ontario’s policing system.”
The inspection will review the province’s 45 police forces, and will cover the following areas, according to CP24: “supervision and span of control, including how officers are supervised and how effective that supervision is; screening and vetting of officers, both at recruitment and on an ongoing basis as they move through their careers; access to police databases and information systems; evidence and property management and substance abuse and fitness for duty.”
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
