{"id":458230,"date":"2026-02-06T19:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/458230\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T19:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:51:12","slug":"public-trust-in-toronto-police-was-strained-before-officers-arrest-what-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/458230\/","title":{"rendered":"Public trust in Toronto police was \u2018strained\u2019 before officers\u2019 arrest. What now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto police knew it had a trust issue before seven serving officers were charged as part of an organized crime investigation.<\/p>\n

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A study completed by the police services board last year found public trust in the force was \u201cstrained,\u201d with many concerned about misconduct and the uneven application of standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the public, we heard similar concerns about mistrust, systemic bias, and a lack of visible accountability,\u201d part of a lengthy study found.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepeated incidents of misconduct and social media narratives reinforce skepticism, especially among youth and newcomer communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those concerns spiralled into a crisis on Thursday, when York Regional Police announced they had charged seven serving Toronto cops in a massive corruption and organized crime investigation.<\/p>\n

The charges included allegedly leaking police information to an organized crime group that then carried out shootings, extortions and robberies. Other charges relate to alleged bribery.<\/p>\n

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Those charges have left police leadership in the difficult position of trying to explain and investigate what happened.<\/p>\n

Global News crime analyst Hank Idsinga said the force had a lot of work left to rebuild already fragile public trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ve got a lot of questions, I think you\u2019ve got a lot of questions that haven\u2019t been answered yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cToronto, what the heck is going on down there? Especially if you take into consideration everything that has happened over the last few years in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Idsinga pointed out that, if the charges against the officers are proven, it could cast doubt on testimony they\u2019d provided in other cases, potentially opening up a stream of appeals.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMaybe they\u2019re involved in an armed robbery investigation from five or six years ago. And if they were a key witness to that armed robbery investigation and somebody was convicted and is doing jail time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guarantee the defence lawyer from that case is going to look at that list of officers here involved and say, \u2018Hold on a second, the credibility of this officer who was a key witness when my client was convicted is absolutely in question. I\u2019m filing an appeal.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters Thursday she would meet with Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

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During an event, the local police chief disavowed the accused officers, saying their alleged actions did not represent the service.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tSeveral Toronto police officers arrested in organized crime investigation\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe allegations against these individuals do not represent the Toronto Police Service,\u201d Demkiw said. \u201cThey do not represent who you are. They do not represent what our organization is and stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian Scott, the former director of the Special Investigations Unit, said police had taken a \u201cbig step\u201d in announcing the arrests and accepting there was a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to some degree they are fighting a bit of a rear-guard action,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe misconduct and alleged criminal offences have taken place, and they\u2019re trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are those who say neither Demkiw, nor the police services board, nor the mayor can lead any investigation into how seven Toronto police officers were allegedly corrupted.<\/p>\n

Ontario Liberal MPP Karen McCrimmon said the charges had shattered confidence in Toronto police \u2014 leaving the force at a delicate crossroads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are very, very serious charges and it really does strike at the heart of the relationship between the police and the constituents. That trust and that bond,\u201d she told Global News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is very, very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

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McCrimmon said the provincial government must order a judicial inquiry into Toronto police and the officers to rebuild trust. Any investigation that isn\u2019t open to the public, she said, would fall short.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as important for justice to be done if it\u2019s not seen to be done; it has to be both. It has to be fully accountable to the people and they have to have trust in the process so it can\u2019t be manipulated,\u201d McCrimmon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a full judicial inquiry, you\u2019re before a judge and lawyers, there are guardrails \u2026 you know that the outcome is real. It\u2019s valid, it\u2019s legitimate. Anything else done behind closed doors or done informally will not have that same credibility with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Ontario\u2019s Solicitor General Michael Kerzner did not address questions and said only local police would answer them.<\/p>\n

Premier Doug Ford appeared to brush off the suggestion, saying the investigation would be well-handled by local cops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation is ongoing, so they\u2019re going to continue their investigation,\u201d he said on Wednesday. \u201cI feel both chiefs are doing an incredible job, and they\u2019re going to cross every \u2018t\u2019 and dot every \u2018i.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford said the arrest of seven serving officers in a massive organized crime investigation should not shake public confidence.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t want to paint a broad brush or tarnish the police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have phenomenal police officers \u2026 I don\u2019t want the public to lose trust in our great trust, they are incredible. There\u2019s always, (in) any organization, a few bad apples and the courts are going to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto police knew it had a trust issue before seven serving officers were charged as part of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,2169,43,44,13404,714,41,39,42,40,79076,123294,65675],"class_list":["post-458230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-canada","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-ontario-politics","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-toronto-police","tag-toronto-politics","tag-york-regional-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}