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posted October 17, 2005
Trying again to build bridges with the police
We're trying again to build bridges between the community and the police. Here's why: There's been a pattern for some years of illegal searches and police telling park users that the park is "very dangerous". That's not what we see, so we'd like to know why. We're worried that this approach will cause problems in the community, rather than solve them.
Open letter to Superintendent James Dicks, Toronto Police Service, Fourteen Division.
Is Dufferin Grove Park really as dangerous as local cops say? Or are they mistaken?
September 20, 2005
Dear Superintendent Dicks,
I am writing to you as the editor of a long-running monthly community newsletter, and as an even longer-time friend of Dufferin Grove Park. Since I wrote to you on August 22, the situation I described then has become even more worrisome. You may remember that my earlier letter referred to police searches of some regular park users near the basketball court some days previously. Police were looking for a knife. (They are often looking for a knife).No charges were laid. I described your staff’s comments then and on several previous occasions, about Dufferin Grove Park being a dangerous park, in a dangerous neighborhood.
On September 5, four police cars came into the park and police searched the same group of black youth for guns. One of the officers held a shotgun, and this incident was observed by a number of other park users, all of whom found it very disturbing. The incident has been the subject of much local discussion since.
No charges were laid then either. However, one of the officers told the park staff person that the park is very unsafe. He also told her that there was a fatal shooting in the park two months ago, and when the park staff person said she had heard of no such thing, he said that "there are some things the police do not release to the media so they can get leads." He insisted that this shooting had happened at Dufferin Grove Park. It seems evident that more than a few Fourteen Division staff who we’re seeing now are new to the area and unfamiliar with Toronto (i.e. they live outside of the city). They may also be relatively new to policing. We are concerned that this unfamiliarity leads them into a mistrust of local people and an “us-against them” stance. Such an attitude makes for a volatile situation that could put park users in danger.
We want to find out the case-by-case basis for your staff's "dangerous park" comments. Staff Inspector McLeod wrote to me "Our coding does not allow for a search of that information [stops by police] by location, however I can tell you that between August 2002 and August 25th, 2005 there were 289 documented police /citizen contacts in the park."
I think we need to know more. Because the disparity between our experience as park users and your staff’s perceptions is so disturbing, we would like to know the case-by-case reasons for those contacts, personal information left blank. We also need to know whether your office’s assertion of a fatal shooting is correct. We need to know if there are any records of other violent attacks in the park within the last three years, by date, giving non-personal details (such as use of a weapon, and if so, what kind, and the damage done). If arrests were made, we need to know the outcomes in court. We hope you will be able to respond to our freedom of information requests and answer these questions.
We need this information in the interest of public safety. This park is very well known throughout Toronto and beyond, and gets heavy use year-round. Many people who live in the neighborhood spend a great deal of time in the park, enjoying the company of their neighbours (of all ages and races). If there has been significant crime in our park of which we have not been made aware, plans should be made collaboratively to address the causes. If, on the other hand, the data you furnish does not bear out your staff’s perceptions of danger, that is also a serious problem. Police will not be effective in this park and in this neighbourhood if they operate in a bubble of their own perception, independent of the community they serve. They may have a negative effect on park users. We would like to work with you to fix this.
I hope that you are as concerned about this as we are.
Jutta Mason
Staff Sgt.Frank Besenthal, head of the Fourteen Division Community Response Unit, called and asked us to come and meet with Supt.Dicks and Staff inspector Macleod. However, when we (four of us including two park staff) got there, the superintendent and his second-in-command were both off sick. There was no attempt by Supt.Dicks to make another appointment, and none of the questions in the letter above were answered.
A freedom of information request asking for the information above was sent to the City of Toronto Corporate Access and Privacy office on Sept.20, but it was returned. It turns out that the Police operate their own, separate freedom of information office. We submitted our questions to that office on October 2, 2005, with a cheque for $5 made out to the Toronto Police Service.
[ed. -- see also the formal request we made for information about this under the Access To Information Legislation. Read more >> ]