Project South uncovered damning allegations of bribery, conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking tied to the suspected misuse of police databases, with officers allegedly accessing classified information which was then funnelled to criminals who carried out shootings and other violent offences.
It not only resulted in the arrests of seven Toronto police officers and one retired officer, but brought the issue of police corruption to the forefront.
In the wake of Project South there are two new teams within the Toronto Police Service (TPS) dedicated to Anti-Corruption, Enforcement, Accountability and Compliance, and one is tasked with conducting unannounced inspections of police divisions and units.
“That means we now have more people conducting internal inspections and more people focused on identifying and investigating possible corruption,” Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said during a recent meeting where he outlined a series of measures designed to weed out corruption.
The Chief also highlighted the ongoing province-wide inspections into all police forces in Ontario, saying they have already passed on documents and disclosure.
“Once they submit reports, the inspector general of policing will review it and issues any legal legal findings, recommendations or directions.”
The report also acknowledges the need to strengthen how access to sensitive police information is monitored. Some of those safeguards are still being developed and much of the work under the Chief’s anti-corruption project is still under way.
Jack Gemmel, lawyer and police critic with the Law Union of Ontario, believes the Project South allegations warrant a much deeper, independent investigation.
His group is calling for an outside police service to investigate whether corruption extends beyond the seven active officers, and recently retired constable, already implicated in the case.
“So, the question is how far does it go into the police force?” he asked. “The related question is why wasn’t this found out by the Toronto Police Service and their Professional Standards Bureau? Why did it take the York Regional Police, in an entirely unrelated investigation, to turn this up?”
Gemmel says Chief Demkiw appears to be more interested in stemming the force’s reputation than cleaning house and he believes the province-wide police inspection underway is too broad to uncover potentially deeper issues in Toronto.
“They will not get into the nitty gritty of how many other officers may be compromised or implicated in this kind of behaviour,” he said.
“These are hard questions and I think the board should have been addressing it and I don’t think they are addressing it.”
According to TPS, more than 20 internal inspections have already been conducted, but the report does not detail if any problems have been uncovered, or whether any officers or supervisors have faced consequences as a result.
Add CityNews Toronto as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.
