Prime Time Crime
A crack in the thin Blue Line - Toronto Police
TORONTO - Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, has been fined five days on his conviction of insubordination while a member of the police service. (Toronto Star)
TORONTO - A Toronto police officer is facing charges after allegedly drawing his service revolver during an off-duty verbal dispute with two private security guards. Const. William Hamilton, 58, of Oshawa has been charged. (CTV) MORE: Off duty confrontation
TORONTO - Faced with a financial crisis, the city manager of Phoenix broke the news Thursday that 352 uniformed police officers would likely get pink slips next month. On the same afternoon, the Toronto police board passed a bare-bones budget up 4.37% from last year - even as other departments were expected to slash their budgets by 5%. (Toronto Star)
TORONTO - Seven months after he was recognized as a cop of the month, a Toronto Police officer is now charged with sexually assaulting a man during a traffic stop. (Sun Media) MORE: Officer facing assault charges
TORONTO - A man died after he was shot by a Toronto Police officer outside a movie theatre. (CityNews) MORE: SIU probe launched Police shooting Montreal man shot by Toronto police
TORONTO - Jeron Powell pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder, two counts of armed robbery with a firearm and was sentenced to 25 years in a federal penitentiary. The court laughably applied Powell's third lifetime firearms ban. (Sun Media)
TORONTO - Police are facing a $1.75M lawsuit by a community worker whose home was raided in May 2008. The lawsuit was filed by Brian Henry and his wife, who live in the Malvern neighbourhood. Their home was raided after a tip from an unknown informant. (CBC)
TORONTO - Police Police intelligence commander Steve Izzett pleaded not guilty today to unwanted kissing, bullying and seven other charges, including destroying computer files after learning he was under investigation. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: Officer charged
Court protects informant identities
TORONTO - An unusual handwritten note on the courtroom door sets out the ground rules: By judge's order, no one is to publish anything that would reveal "or tend to reveal" the identity of confidential informant CI-186 or any other "C.I.'s" during the course of the trial. (Toronto Star)
TORONTO - A 21-year-old man faces a long list of charges including attempted murder after a Toronto police officer found himself dodging bullets. The frightening altercation happened at about 2:30am Monday in the Weston Rd. and Highway 401 area as members of the Gun and Gang Task Force were conducting an investigation. Nearly 24 hours later, police arrested Jaime Eduardo Merchan and recovered a firearm. (CityNews) MORE: Suspect arrested
TORONTO - A 31-year-old man was arrested in a fast-food restaurant shortly after he allegedly opened fire on a group of six people – including two plainclothes police officers – in the city's northeast end Friday afternoon. (Toronto Star) MORE: Suspect named
TORONTO - Wieslaw Duda, 49, who was a father of two, died early Monday morning. Those close to Duda recalled that he suffered from schizophrenia and had been taking medication before his death. (CTV) PREVIOUS: Police shooting SIU investigating Deadly shooting Man shot
TORONTO - A Toronto Police officer has been charged with assault and uttering threats following a probe of old court transcripts by the province's Special Investigations Unit. Det. Const. Gerrard Arulanandam is charged with: Assault Causing Bodily Harm, Uttering Threats. (CTV)
TORONTO - The Special Investigations Unit has cleared the Toronto Police Service officers involved in the shooting of a man outside an Eglinton Ave East movie theatre in late December. (CTV)
TORONTO - Call it Cops, Inc. Profits are soaring. Work orders stream through the fax at headquarters on Eglinton Ave W. Operating out of a city police station, this outfit, run by the police for the police, sells off-duty but armed Toronto officers as security and traffic control to municipal and provincial departments, construction firms, utility operators, community groups and funeral homes. (Toronto Star) MORE: Paid police gigs face city review Police board orders review of paid duty system TPS budget headed to $1B TPS seeks $41M budget increase
TORONTO - A Toronto Star investigation has found that since 2005, more than 400 officers and prison guards across Ontario received a total of $1.5M from the taxpayer-funded Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB). (Toronto Star) MORE: Payouts to injured officers create stir
TORONTO - Two Toronto police officers have been charged with assaulting a man after an investigation was launched by the province's SIU. (CP)
TORONTO - Const. Gail Shields says she doesn't remember what happened after her third beer. (Toronto Star)
Officer cleared is charged again
TORONTO - A Toronto police officer was charged with aggravated assault and discharging a firearm with intent by the province's SIU - despite being cleared by a police probe into the same incident two years ago, his lawyer said. (Toronto Star) MORE: 19 months later, man says cops shot him
TORONTO - He spent 10 weeks in jail last year, charged with crimes he did not commit. Now, Hector San Hueza has slapped police and Crown attorneys with a lawsuit. (Toronto Star)
TORONTO - An anti-violence plan that Toronto police say has helped reduce crime in the city by nearly 30% is getting a significant financial boost from the province. The strategy, also known as TAVIS, was established by the Toronto Police Service in 2006 to combat gangs, drugs and illegal weapons. (CBC) MORE: Toughest 'hoods' get $10M 76 arrested in drug probe
TORONTO - Two Toronto police officers enlisted the help of a real estate agent to buy and sell properties they converted to marijuana grow operations in order to fuel a massive "criminal enterprise," police said. (Toronto Star)
GRAND CAYMAN - Former Toronto police officer Richard Hanna's international police career has come to a screeching halt in the Cayman Islands where he has been jailed for 15 months for stealing money from schoolchildren. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: Former officer bilked school kids
TORONTO - The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board’s decision, which was released on Feb. 19, found that "even when no gun was found on the Applicant the use of excessive force persisted." It also found that Nimo Gulleid was a "victim of a crime of assault." (Toronto Star)
TORONTO - The Supreme Court of Canada has turned down a bid from five former drug squad officers to have a decision sending them to trial overturned. (Toronto Star)
Police 'unplugged' corruption probe
Justice Department accused of stalling probe
Neily report .pdf
Officers face more corruption accusations
Brass said to have blocked internal probe
Corruption probe laid a fraction of charges
Defending pulling legal support
TORONTO - Attorney General Chris Bentley has defended an 11th-hour decision to pull ministry legal support from a landmark Superior Court application, rebuffing accusations that he buckled to pressure from police unions. (Toronto Star)
Police unions to fight SIU in court
Tasering violated man's rights
TORONTO - Justice David Brown found the officer fired his Taser at the man's back almost two minutes after another ETF officer had fired his stun gun at the man. Police denied the allegations but Brown said he rejected their evidence and was staying the cocaine trafficking charge against Francis Walcott, 41. (Toronto Star)
`He made Toronto a safer city'
TORONTO - Even the police horses stood silent as pallbearers marched past them at the entrance to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Scarborough. Bagpipes played "Amazing Grace" as eight officers hoisted the casket of former Toronto police chief Jack Marks onto their shoulders. (Toronto Star) MORE: Former police chief laid to rest
TORONTO - A Toronto police officer who was caught on tape sucker-punching a man outside a Rexdale coffee shop was led away in handcuffs when his appeal of the conviction was tossed out of court yesterday. (Toronto Star) RELATED: Officer in strip bar a curious tale Bad day for TPS
Who's protecting this officer's family?
TORONTO - One night in the fall of 1994, shortly after his shift was over, detective Tom Hamilton made a brief stop at a colleague's retirement party, and then he got in his truck and drove north to his home in Keswick. (Toronto Star)
Whistleblower offered settlement
Toronto Police Service has offered a settlement to a whistleblower who accused the force of sweeping internal corruption allegations under the carpet, the officer's lawyer says. (CBC)
TORONTO - A Toronto police officer and his family feel overwhelming relief that a jury has acquitted him of assaulting a demonstrator and concocting a story to cover his tracks, his lawyer says. (Toronto Star)
TORONTO - Over red wine, pasta and other Italian fare, OPP Sgt. Mike Rutigliano, defence lawyer Gary Clewley, who had won the case, private investigator Bruce Murray and another defence lawyer, Owen Wigderson, joined Frank D'Angelo, who had just turned 50. Also at the table were Richard Bennett and Domenic Basile, two well-known veteran Crown attorneys. (Toronto Star)
Probe targets courthouse corruption
Conspiracy to obstruct justice
TORONTO - Making investigative reports about police public will go a long way in improving the reputation of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said former North Bay Police Service chief George Berrigan. (North Bay Nugget)
TORONTO - While the attorney general's ministry says it's appealing the staying of corruption charges against Toronto police officers because the judge got it wrong, lawyers familiar with the office believe the collapse of the case is a symptom of larger difficulties in the ministry's criminal law division, which handles most big prosecutions in Ontario. (Toronto Star)
Suspended Toronto cop facing new charges
Court hearing for drug squad officers
Officer in scandal fights discipline charges
Behind the Toronto police scandal
'Rogue' police bullied witnesses
Case against drug cops falls apart
If media won't obey, he'll cuff'em
Cop propositioned undercover officer
TORONTO - Racial profiling lawsuits and other civil actions are threatening to drive up the Toronto police force's legal bills just as the Supreme Court of Canada prepares to rule in a case that could open police to even more litigation. (Toronto Star) RELATED: Province brands city a high-risk employer
Police board discourages scrutiny
TORONTO - According to the provincial Police Services Act, hearings conducted by the Police Services Board must be open to the public and notice of the tribunals must be published. The only exception is for prevention of risks to public or personal security. (CBC) MORE: Police officers lose name tags battle
TORONTO - Afzal Badin, late for evening prayer, assessed that the kitchen knife in his hand was no match for the men in the hallway with handguns. (Toronto Star)
Guilty officer gets 'vacation'
TORONTO - The brother of a pedestrian gravely injured in a hit-and-run accident caused by an off-duty officer says he is outraged by the man's conditional sentence. (Toronto Star)
Cop charged in attack on cyclist
TORONTO - A 21-year veteran of Toronto police has been charged with assault after a cyclist was attacked in downtown Toronto – an incident dramatically captured on videotape by a group of students working on a project about surveillance cameras. (Toronto Star) RELATED: Cops, cons and 'whack jobs'
TORONTO - Jahnoie Tinglin, 21, faces 34 charges, including attempted murder, carrying a concealed weapon and 16 counts of possessing fraudulent credit card information, after 2 police officers were fired on during a foot chase. (Star) MORE: Man charged with attempting to murder police officers
TORONTO - A 42-year-old Toronto man was shot and killed after a fight with a Toronto police officer inside a Parkdale pharmacy. (Toronto Star) MORE: SIU probe shooting
Man shot by police dies in hospital
Blair boasts victory over city gun crime
TORONTO - The success of a Toronto police strategy that helped reverse last year's frightening flurry of gun crimes has piqued the interest of other big city forces grappling with rising crime, Police Chief William (Bill) Blair said yesterday. (National Post) COMMENT: No time for boasting Daily listing of violent crimes in Toronto Toronto gun crime:The bleak facts GTA shooting 2007
Toronto's top cops get recognized
One ran into a burning building and carried a woman out on his back. Several others tracked down a child predator who was luring young boys into games of strip poker. Two more followed a hunch and stumbled upon armed robbers at a subway station miles away from the person they robbed. (National Post) PREVIOUS: Police force needs cleanup: veteran officer Blair under fire CBC: Under Fire
Ferguson report released
The Report: Volume 1 Volume 2 Justice Ferguson's comments to the Board .pdf (Feb. 26, 2004)
Toronto cops charged in corruption probe
Police Breaking code of silence
Police drug squad hit with lawsuits
Officers sue police chief over fink fund case
RCMP probes corruption on Toronto Police Force