Mark Saunders named Toronto’s next police chief

Saunders, 52, is the next chief of the Toronto Police Service, making history as the first black leader of the largest municipal police service in Canada.

Thestar.com
April 19, 2015
By Royson James

Mark Saunders is Toronto’s new police chief, the first black person to hold the job.

The Toronto police services board picked Saunders from three finalists on Friday afternoon, following a day of final interviews.

The announcement is slated for a 10 a.m. news conference Monday.

Deputy chief Saunders beat deputy chief Peter Sloly, the more experienced senior officer, leaving Sloly’s supporters in shock last night.

At least three sources confirmed the choice.

The Star was unable to reach Saunders.

“It’s over,” said one source who received an email last night confirming Saunders got the nod.

“They caved,” said another source of the board. “They caved to the police association; they caved to the chief; they caved to the senior officers. This is just incredible.”

Sloly reportedly called Saunders Sunday night to congratulate him on winning the contest.

Since last December, when Mayor John Tory arrived on the police board, Sloly’s supporters have feared that the mayor’s presence was a power play designed to block Sloly’s rise to the position. Sloly is known to be opposed to carding and authored many of the recommended changes that outgoing Chief Bill Blair refused to implement.

Tory and the new board approved a new policy regarding carding last week - discarding the recommended changes - over loud objections from many citizens, some of them in tears. When that happened, it cemented the view that Saunders would get the nod over Sloly.

Sources familiar with the search told the Star’s Betsy Powell that Saunders blew away the board members in his interview; Sloly turned off board members, the source suggested, because he seemed to be campaigning for the position. (A third candidate, former Prince Albert, Sask. chief Dale McFee, was very good, too, the source said, but McFee didn’t have the right experience - he ran a force much too small.)

Saunders, a 32-year Toronto police veteran takes the reins later this month from Blair, who leaves a force struggling to contain costs and in the midst of an ongoing controversy over racial profiling and the divisive police tactic of carding.

Saunders was appointed deputy chief in 2012, and is in charge of Specialized Operations Command, where he oversees 1,200 police officers, 164 civilian members and a budget of $175 million.

He has previously served in wide-ranging areas in the force, including the urban street gang unit, intelligence division, drug squad, Emergency Task Force unit and was unit commander of the homicide squad. He is credited with creating the investigative cybercrime unit, C3.

The married father of four holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice Studies from the University of Guelph-Humber.

The Toronto Police Services Board, the seven-member civilian board that hires the chief, considered candidates outside the force. But the true race was always rumoured to be between Saunders and fellow deputy chief Peter Sloly.

Saunders was said to be the preferred choice of the Toronto Police Association, which represents the roughly 5,500 uniformed and 2,500 civilian members.

Sloly, 48, and also black, has risen quickly through the management ranks, apparently prompting concerns the rank and file may doubt his understanding of the average officer’s job. By comparison, Saunders is seen to have extensive boots-on-the-ground policing experience, including stints as an undercover drug cop, head of homicide and with the force’s elite Emergency Task Force unit, where he became the first black sergeant.

While generally supportive of the candidacies of both Saunders and Sloly, some within Toronto’s black community still see Saunders as too sympathetic to the policing establishment and less likely to advocate for real reform. In an interview last week, Margaret Parsons, of the African Canadian Legal Clinic, said she had concerns Saunders would not be as open to ending or limiting carding as Sloly.