Cellphones untether Toronto police from their cruisers

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Toronto police officers are adding a new piece of equipment to their tool kit: cellphones.

For the first time, service-issued mobile devices are being given to patrol officers in hopes of getting them out of their cruisers and back into the community. Until now, only some senior or specialized officers were equipped with cellphones.

It is one of 32 recommendations that the Toronto Police Service (TPS) is implementing as part of a plan to overhaul policing culture and rein in a $1-billion budget.

Currently, police officers are tethered to the computer systems in their cars to file reports or search databases. Even a call to a partner agency has to be done over the radio, through dispatch. In addition to being cumbersome and inefficient, this system keeps officers in cruisers – which the service acknowledged in its final modernization report are "physical barriers that create a sense of isolation from residents."

Now, with a cellphone, they will be able to do all that on the go.

"Connected officers will be able to prepare and file reports … from anywhere, rather than being limited to mobile workstations in cars or having to return to police stations to work at desktop computers," according to the report.

TPS spokesperson Sandra Buckler said on Wednesday that about 35 police officers from across the service's 17 divisions have been piloting the phone project for the past eight months. By the end of February, all 236 front-line officers in 51 Division (the first division to get them) will be equipped with the phones, she said. Service-wide implementation is expected by 2020.

Constable Marc Hayford was a pilot participant while doing plainclothes work for the major crimes unit in the city's east end. Since last summer, he said the phone has become a "lifeline," and that he was the "envy of the station."

"It allowed me to do everything I was able to do at my desk, or that the officers in their cars could do," he said. "It increased our productivity exponentially."

For example, he said he could discreetly check a mugshot photo that he otherwise would have had to print and carry with him, or call to a colleague without returning to the cruiser.

Constable Dave Smith, a bicycle officer who is part of the Community Response Unit in 51 Division, just got his phone last week. He said it has already made a huge difference, allowing his team to stay in the loop on calls, and jump in to help when they can.

Asked about potential security risks – if a phone is lost or stolen, for example – Ms. Buckler said the devices are secure "and will be rendered inoperable if ever stolen."

She could not say on Wednesday what the full project is expected to cost. So far, the pilot project and the phone roll-out have been funded by a grant of about $1-million from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, for which the force will have to reapply next year. The cost will eventually be rolled into the operational budget. And while it is likely to be expensive and not reduce costs in the short term, the service is hopeful that the culture pay-off will be worth the investment.

"It's not because it's cheaper," city councillor and police services board member Shelley Caroll said recently of the recommendation. "It's because getting them out there on the street is actually going to change their interactions with human beings."

The service hopes the phones will eliminate the need for paper memo books.

"This will fundamentally change how the service can store, collect, retrieve and analyze logged information," the modernization report promises. "Paper memo books will be a thing of the past."

Joe Couto, spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, said many services still do not use cellphones, including the Ontario Provincial Police, and forces in London, and Durham and York region.

"They do issue them to non-front-line personnel based on the nature of their responsibilities," Mr. Couto said.