City Budget Committee to review amount spent on paid duty officers

City Budget Chief, Coun. Mike Del Grande, thinks Toronto can save millions of dollars a year by overhauling the paid duty system that sees Toronto police officers rake in $65/hour to do things like monitor traffic, guard construction sites and patrol street festivals.

The Budget Committee is considering lowering double-time salary, as well as introducing a new designated ‘traffic warden’ officer, who would be paid less to perform the duties.

Currently, more than $5 million a year is forked over by city departments for traffic control at city construction sites.

Councillor Adam Vaughan blames a city bylaw that requires a police presence within 30 metres of a traffic light at a construction site.

“It’s not the police generating the work, it’s us with our rules,” he told CityNews.  “Surely to goodness we can stop using police officers and their $100,000 salaries now to protect holes in the ground on the road.”

Del Grande also expressed his frustration with the current system, questioning why off-duty officers are paid so much to police festivals and events when on-duty officers could be doing the work as part of their regular shifts.

“Is regular policing now becoming paid duty policing?” he asked.  “And is the drive of the (police) force to be lucrative moving towards pay duty as opposed to dealing with everyday policing?”

“Deal with the 911 calls, that’s a priority, that’s where we need police,” he stressed.

The Budget Committee’s vice-chair, councillor Doug Ford, defended the use of paid-duty officers, saying the amount spent paled in comparison to the value of construction projects, noting that officers watch over almost $1 billion of city upgrades annually.