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Deputy chief Sloly surely on the way out

Deputy chief Peter Sloly has mostly minded his Ps and Qs during a nearly 30-year career on the Toronto police force. He wouldn’t have risen to such lofty heights, one of the first deputy chiefs of colour on the Toronto force, otherwise.

Save for a couple of highly-publicized set-tos with the police union over racial profiling and musings about racists cops some years back – Sloly would know something about the latter since he cut his teeth as a cop in 31 Division which includes the Jane Finch area – he’s been a team player.

But it’s also safe to say a few among the old boys’ network on the force resented his occasional outspokenness, not to mention his quick rise through the ranks. He was touted as chief material practically even before he was appointed deputy in 2009. But that was a different time. A progressive mayor was in charge at City Hall and diversity was the operative word at police headquarters.

Before some cat named Mark Saunders came out of nowhere to steal the brass ring from Sloly and become the city’s first black chief of police last April, Sloly was willing to play along to get along. At the height of the tumult over the Danzig Street shooting shocker in 2012, it was left to Sloly, the force’s most prominent visible minority face, to sell the mass buildup of police that followed in priority neighborhoods. 

No more Mr. Nice Guy. Sloly is on the way out after some pointed comments about a bloated police budget and police department that he says is content to keep chasing more calls for service than they can keep up with in the face of an ever-ballooning budget – and not seeming to care a lick about continuing on that tired path – while spouting some nice words about the need for transformational change. Sloly also made some biting remarks about public trust in the force being at an all-time low.

Toronto police union head Mike McCormack, who has never made any secret of his dislike for Sloly, called the broadside “sour grapes,” a consequence of Sloly not winning the chief’s job. Saunders was more diplomatic in his reaction, although clearly pissed off that one of his deputies would so publicly take the force to task in no uncertain terms.

But the most disingenuous response came from Mayor John Tory, who tried to defuse the situation by pointing out Sloly wasn’t saying anything that hadn’t already been mentioned in a recent consultants report by KPMG, which has recommended a raft of cost-cutting measures. 

Thing is, that report, commissioned under former Police Services Board chair Alok Mukherjee, only came to the public’s attention because of a well-placed leak to the Star some weeks back. Before that, the police brass had every intention of burying it. Is it possible Tory didn’t know anything about that?

Tory put himself on the Police Services Board to (allegedly) fix the financial mess and questions of public trust left by his predecessor, but quite clearly doesn’t have the backbone to take on the policing establishment.

First, there was the flip-flopping over carding. Then the broken promise not to appoint his pal, Andrew Pringle, Board chair, after that nasty little ouster orchestrated of Mukherjee with the mayor’s blessing. Should we mention the police budget? There was nary a peep from the mayor’s budget committee about the cops’ budget request for $27 million more this year (taking the cop budget over $1 billion for the first time in its history) while the city’s social housing stock faces a $2 billion repair backlog and transit plans keep changing faster than the plot of a bad B-movie script. Giving the cops more money doesn’t quite square with Tory’s public support for the KPMG report.

Now the Sloly slow burn. Don’t be fooled. Tory has had an invisible hand in that, too.

He has said there will be no sanctions for Sloly speaking out, even while certain media reports suggest the spin that Sloly is leaving the force is coming out of the mayor’s office. 

The police union has already launched a formal complaint with the Board over Sloly’s remarks. Tory has followed the union’s lead on matters policing up until now, including in voting for their choice for chief in “cop’s cop” Saunders. So who do you think the mayor is going to side with now?

Sloly’s absence from his familiar spot on deputies row at Wednesday’s regular monthly Board meeting is the clearest signal yet that a buyout is in the works. The Board met in-camera that day to discuss the Sloly matter and receive an explanation from the deputy about his comments. That was supposed to be followed by a public statement from Sloly Thursday. But so far radio silence. Chances are the next time we’ll hear from Sloly it’ll be to announce his resignation. It’s back to the bad olds days of policing in Hogtown.

enzom@nowtoronto.com | @enzodimatteo

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