Cutting officers key to 'real savings,' police chief says

Since taking over the job some seven months ago, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders has faced issues including the city's readiness in the face of terrorism, his force's billion-dollar budget and the still-thorny matter of carding.

Saunders sat down recently with CBC Toronto's Dwight Drummond for a closer look at the Toronto Police Service's bigger challengesin 2015 and his plans for the year to come.

On the budget:

"Everyone's looking for that silver bullet [to cut costs] that's not going to happen. This is a very large organization and it's an organization that deals with safety ...

"I won't compromise the safety of the law enforcement and I won't compromise the safety of anyone that lives in Toronto, works in Toronto or visits Toronto...

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"If you want to talk real, real savings that's in reducing the numbers of police officers. What I want do, first and foremost, I want to look at how do we redeploy the existing model. How do we change the model that suits today's environment?

"We've got cyber issues, we've got national security issues and we've got day-to-day safety issues. We have to look at does today's model fit that need?"

On carding:

"There's going to be an onus on me to figure out a way that information can still be maintained, where we understand the criminal element of a community,not the citizens of the community...

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"I think we may have to change the playbook a little so that my officers have access to information that's better, more intelligence-led, more focused specifically on the criminal element so that they can utilize those tools to better perform on the street."

On respect:

"When you look at the environment right now, public trust is not the best in North America. I hear this from other major city chiefs we're all going through the exact same thing right now.

"When you see some of the behaviour of some officers on video, and things that are done and you incorporate that with social media ... we all, as police agencies, inherit these things...

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"And on top of that, when you look at a lot of the rhetoric that goes on 'You don't ever have to talk to the police' well, there are times we're in the lawful execution of our duty.

"There are times we are allowed to conduct investigations for specific offences. So, not good advice, because that leads to arrest."

On terrorism:

"We have officers doing nothing but working on a national security platform on a daily basis they're looking at what's going on around the world, does it impact on Toronto? What is the impact? Doing threat assessments, making sure the resources are in place to look after any situation...

"We have a plan in play. We're not going to be reactive, we're going to be active. We have a plan."

On internal politics:

"I don't feel people are out to get me. If they are, good luck."