York Regional Police chief Jim MacSween will retire in June
The announcement comes several weeks after Project South uncovered alleged police corruption
Earlier this month, a group of Toronto police officers were arrested in relation to organized crime and corruption charges, the outcome of the Toronto Police Service’s Project South investigation.
The unsettling allegations include bribery, obstruction of justice, drug trafficking, theft of personal property, breach of trust, and the unauthorized access and distribution of confidential information.
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According to police, the accused officers unlawfully accessed personal information and shared it with contacts in organized crime, who carried out shootings and other violent crimes. As reporting continues to come out, it’s also been alleged that police used GPS to track a victim, that they orchestrated insurance fraud and that they trafficked official police uniforms.
At the initial press conference, York Regional Police chief Jim MacSween acknowledged the seriousness of the case, though he seemed to focus blame on the organized crime network involved. “This is a deeply disappointing and sad day for policing,” he said. “And it shows the insidious and corrosive nature of organized crime.”
Ontario’s inspector general of policing later announced that he would order an independent review of the matter.
In the latest update, MacSween has shared that he’ll retire in June, after 37 years in policing and six as York’s chief of police.
“It has been the greatest honour of my career to lead the dedicated members of York Regional Police, who put the professionalism, compassion and commitment to public safety into action every day,” MacSween said in a media release.
The release added that the police service board has begun a search for MacSween’s replacement.
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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.
