This is Appendix 1 to the response letter we wrote to the Attorney General in response to his request for input into the matter of handling complaints about the police.

Appendix 1: some examples

September 2000

Eleven people from various streets in the neighbourhood faxed a joint letter to Superintendent Paul Gottschalk of Fourteen Division, about the September 3 group attack on a young man who was beaten unconscious at our park. The police response to this attack was minimal; in fact, for the first week after the attack, they said they had no record of the occurrence. The following week it was presented as an unimportant incident. The community letter emphasized that the community does not regard any group attack as a minor incident. They asked Supt. Gottschalk to clarify the police position on group violence in our park. Two weeks later, the first person on the list of signatures received a reply from Staff Inspector K.L. Forde of "Complaints Review" who said that the chief of Police does not have to "deal with any complaint made by any member of the public if he… decides that the complainant was not directly affected by the policy, service or conduct that is the subject of the complaint." No reference was made to the multiple signatures in the community letter. The matter was treated as though this was an isolated complaint by one citizen which did not merit a response. Subsequently the group was denied permission to make a deputation to the Police Services Board about this matter.

November 2001

A park user commented on a puzzling gun search by police of the regular basketball players, who are mostly young black men. The police were asked whether there was a particular reason to worry about criminal activities in the park at that time. The answer was very reassuring on that count: there had been no alarming park-related reports. This raised the question of why police came several times and searched the basketball players. During one search, police told the youth that they were responding to community complaints about them being in the park too much. In response, our group wrote to Sup't Paul Gottschalk of Fourteen Division, asking him or a representative to come and speak about such searches. He replied in a very brief letter: "I have reviewed the circumstances referred to in your letter. I am satisfied that the actions taken by 14 Division officers were appropriate and lawful." The request for a meeting was declined.

May 2003

As many park users have observed, Toronto Police officers periodically approach young men of colour at the park and ask to see their i.d. It's called "going fishing" - approaching people out of the blue in case they might be arrestable. Since this is illegal, our group's secretary, on one occasion when this occurred, questioned one of three officers, who had stopped a young black man and asked to see his i.d. The officer told he to "go hug a tree". She wrote a letter about this to the chief of police, and was then asked to come for a taped interview at the police station. The interview resulted in a bound report, with appendices. In defence of the apparently random police questioning of the man, the report cited: 1) statistical increase in car thefts in the police division; 2) the fact that car thieves tend to use cell phones and this young man had been talking on a cell phone; and, 3) that as they observed the man, he changed direction (actually walking back up the sidewalk towards the police). The report also suggested that anyone citizen who stops to observe police questioning could easily be charged with obstructing police, a charge carrying a possible jail sentence of two years less a day. In addition, the document reported as fact what the officers recalled about the event, which contradicted what our group's secretary had seen and reported, and in effect, suggested that she must be a liar or a meddlesome fool, or both.

November 2003

From our November 2003 Dufferin Grove Park newsletter:
Mary (not her real name), a young woman of 17, her 4 month old baby, the baby's dad, Joe, and a lot of their friends, many of whom are from the Caribbean, come to the park often. One evening Mary was walking home from the park to nurse her baby, when two young police officers on bikes stopped her and asked for i.d. Jutta Mason, who was also working at the park that evening, noticed the police, and came over to see what was going on with Mary. One of the officers told Mary that there was a warrant out for her arrest. Mary said that couldn't be. Officer 5404 (she had no name, but a number) said Mary might be lying, and she handcuffed Mary's hands behind her back. Officer 5404 searched Mary's pockets and found a cell phone and two twenty-dollar bills, and asked her why she had so much money, and - when the cell phone rang - why the phone rang so much. Then officer 5404 summoned a cruiser and prepared to take Mary away. Mary was not permitted to call home to let Joe know she was arrested, but a friend who was watching this had called Joe.

Jutta asked the officer if Mary would be allowed to nurse the baby before she was taken away. The officer asked Jutta who she was, and when she said she worked in the park, Officer 5404 said Jutta should move along then, and go about her business. Jutta asked again if Mary could nurse the baby, but then Officer 5404 said she should be quiet or she would be arrested too - for obstructing the police.

The police car and Joe, carrying the baby, arrived at the park about the same time. The baby was crying and Jutta asked the officers again if Mary could just nurse the baby in the police car before she was taken away. The officer driving the car joined with Officer 5404 in warning Jutta again: if she didn't stop talking to them, she would be arrested and her bike would be confiscated. They said Mary could not nurse the baby, that Mary would be taken to Eleven Division, and Joe could take a cab and go to the station separately - that was none of their concern.

Mary asked Joe to hold up the baby so she could kiss it goodbye. But Officer 5404 jerked Mary away by the handcuffs, and put her in the cruiser.

Mary was there only a short time. As soon as she got there, the people at Eleven Division checked her name and realized this had all been a computer error - there was no arrest warrant. Apparently the computer was acting up - this was the fifth such error that evening. Mary was told she was free to go.

Jutta told this story to the Superintendent Kaproski, of Fourteen Division, Officer 5404's boss. He said he'd look into it and call back, but he never did.

See also: Appendix 2.