From Vision to Reality: Our Foundational Year Annual Report of the Inspector General of Policing 2023
Message from the Inspector General of Policing of Ontario
Nothing significant happens overnight. The creation of the role of the Inspector General of Policing, supported by the Inspectorate of Policing – the first of their kind in Canada – is a testament to that. After several years of structuring our operations, creating internal capacity and engaging with the policing sector we oversee on a provincial scale, my role as Inspector General came to life on April 1, 2024, with the coming into force of the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 (CSPA).
Establishing a brand-new oversight body dedicated to ensuring police services, boards and others are in compliance with Ontario’s new policing legislation, was no simple task. It did not come with a “how-to” manual. Since 2019, our dedicated team of professionals has worked diligently to shape our operational processes and structures, ensuring we are prepared to fulfil the mandate and live up to the promise of the Inspector General’s unique role. As reflected in this inaugural annual report, in the 2023 calendar year, we were hard at work to be ready for operations: focusing on staff recruitment and training, developing and testing our approaches to compliance oversight and performance measurement, creating IT solutions for the efficient management of public complaints, and building public awareness about my new mandate and our future activities. We also prioritized both provincial and local engagement with the policing sector we oversee to ensure transparency in our approaches and to establish a crucial feedback loop, enabling us to continuously improve how we deliver our oversight role in the public interest.
Together, the team at the IoP laid a strong foundation that marks the beginning of our journey towards improving policing performance in Ontario to make everyone safer. To bring this vision to life, we are developing our forthcoming and first strategic plan – which will serve as a ‘roadmap’ to guide our priorities and approaches in the coming year and beyond. In next year’s annual report, we commit to reporting on our progress towards achieving the objectives laid out in this strategic plan and starting to paint a “provincial picture” of the state of policing in Ontario – a picture we will add to in subsequent years. We hope that through our work, we will help set a global benchmark for policing excellence that distinguishes Ontario as an international leader in this space.
Ultimately, my mandate centers on the public interest. Our goal is to ensure every person in Ontario feels safe in their community and has confidence in the policing and police governance they receive. It is also in the public interest to enhance the legitimacy and ongoing modernization of Ontario’s policing sector, to ensure it remains responsive to our ever-changing social environments. This means the policing and police governance delivered to communities continuously supports and reflects their diversity, responds to their unique local needs, and is delivered in an effective, progressive, and equitable way.
I am honoured to be serving as Ontario’s Inspector General of Policing, and to be leading this first-of-its-kind organization in bringing our ambitious vision to life.
Ryan Teschner
Inspector General of Policing of Ontario
Ontario’s Inspector General and the Inspectorate of Policing
Policing has changed significantly in recent years, both in Ontario and around the world. This has come about through increased public awareness of systemic issues, calls for greater transparency, accountability and effectiveness in police service delivery and its oversight system, and modern approaches to public safety being considered, tested and applied. The recognition that the laws that underpin Ontario’s system of policing need to keep pace with these changes led to the establishment of Ontario’s new Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA).
On April 1, 2024, the CSPA replaced the Police Services Act – now, over 30 years old and largely unchanged since its enactment in 1990. The CSPA brings transformative change to the policing sector in the province and aims to ensure policing practices remain responsive to contemporary challenges and community needs. One significant change brought about through the CSPA was the creation of the new role of Inspector General of Policing (IG). This new oversight role, the first-of-its-kind in Canada, is responsible for ensuring adequate and effective policing and police governance is provided to all Ontario communities in a manner that is both aligned to provincial standards and responsive to local needs. The IG is supported by the Inspectorate of Policing (IoP), an arms-length division of the Ministry of the Solicitor General established to provide the operational support necessary to fulfill the IG’s mandate under the CSPA.
Under Ontario’s CSPA, the IG is empowered to provide compliance oversight and, where appropriate, to take actions to address policing and police governance concerns. There are various ‘tools’ the IG can access under the CSPA to fulfill their statutory mandate:
- Independently assessing and monitoring legislated policing entities;
- Providing advice and support to legislated policing entities on governance and operational matters by sharing evidence-based research and data related to performance;
- Monitoring and conducting inspections of legislated policing entities to ensure compliance with the CSPA and its regulations;
- Investigating complaints concerning the delivery of policing services and the conduct of police board members;
- Issuing Directions to ensure compliance with the CSPA and its regulations – and, if necessary – imposing Measures, if there is a failure to comply; and,
- Publicly reporting on the activities of the IG, including publishing inspection results and an annual report.
The IG is responsible for overseeing the following Ontario policing entities:
- Municipal police services and police service boards;
- Chiefs of Police;
- The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and OPP detachment boards;
- First Nations OPP boards and First Nations police service boards that opt-in to the CSPA;
- Any entity providing policing by agreement;
- Any public sector body that may be prescribed to provide policing; and,
- Organizations that employ special constables.
The CSPA marks a pivotal step towards enhancing policing and police governance delivery in Ontario. By establishing the IG and the IoP, the CSPA ensures a modernized framework for oversight, accountability, and support of excellence in policing across the province. The IG and the professionals in the IoP are responsible for upholding the public interest, working to ensure that every person in Ontario feels safe in their community and has confidence in the policing and police governance they receive, regardless of who they are or where they live.
Year in Review
My First Annual Report
As part of my legislative mandate, and in line with a commitment to transparency and accountability, I am providing an annual report on the IoP’s activities and progress towards fulfilling my mandate.
This inaugural annual report covers the 2023 calendar year and has been submitted to the Solicitor General, as required by the CSPA and is published on the IoP’s website. Since my mandate as IG commenced on April 1, 2024 with the coming into force of the CSPA, there were no activities to report in the 2023 calendar year in relation to the specific reporting requirements listed in section 103 of the CSPA. As a result, this annual report focuses on providing a foundational overview of the mandate of the IG and the IoP, and the activities to prepare for the IoP’s new operational status. This report also provides a preview of the IoP’s approach to fulfilling my mandate, and the specific plan and data points we will report on in future years.
Future Annual Reports and the State of Policing in Ontario
The CSPA (section 103) mandates that the IG’s annual report must include information about at least the following items:
1. The activities of the IG, including,
I. Inspections conducted,
II. Complaints dealt with under section 106 and 107,
III. Notifications sent to the Complaints Director or the SIU Director,
IV. Directions issued under section 125, and
V. Measures imposed under section 126.
2. The compliance of the police service boards, O.P.P. detachment boards, First Nation O.P.P. boards, chiefs of police, special constable employers, police services, and prescribed policing providers with this Act and the regulations.
3. Any other prescribed matters.
While there were no activities completed in 2023 that relate to these reporting requirements, in future annual reports – to be published by June 30 of each year – I will provide comprehensive and insightful data and information that gives a snapshot of the IG’s work and the IoP’s previous calendar year’s operations, including trends, challenges and opportunities we are gleaning from our policing oversight activities.
I look forward to the IG’s annual reports offering both the public and the policing sector a detailed provincial picture of the state of policing in Ontario. I am also committed to using the IG’s annual reports to report on our progress towards achieving the strategic objectives outlined in our forthcoming strategic plan.
Setting our Foundation
In 2023, I, with the support of the IoP, focused on preparing for the CSPA coming into force, and with that, our operations coming to life. Our efforts included building our operations, hiring and training our staff and engaging with the sector to support its readiness to transition to the CSPA. We were dedicated to establishing a strong organizational foundation, ensuring our operational processes, governance and decision-making structures, and data management systems were effective, efficient, and ready to support the delivery of my legislated mandate.
Our Strategic Plan
I will soon be publishing the IoP’s first strategic plan, which will serve as a roadmap to help us in fulfilling our vision over the next three years. It creates our ‘compass’ – what we will use to guide us in setting our priorities and approaching our day-to-day work, and, ultimately, in fulfilling my legislated mandate.
Our strategic plan will focus on three key objectives and detail their impact on helping us fulfill our vision towards improving performance and public confidence in Ontario’s policing sector. In the coming year and beyond, we will focus on:
- Serving the public interest by improving policing in areas of greatest impact and increasing transparency about how this is happening;
- Propelling greater policing insights and foresights to address risks in policing compliance with the CSPA; and,
- Improving Ontario’s policing performance and setting a global benchmark by becoming a centre of excellence.
Our strategic plan will highlight the importance of these objectives and our strategy for achieving them, and outline the indicators we will use to measure our progress.
Our objectives will be shaped by key sources of information in policing and police governance. In 2023, we conducted comprehensive research, including environmental and jurisdictional scans, current and future needs assessments, and consultations with IoP staff, senior management and members of the policing sector. This approach ensured that our strategic plan would support the achievement of our ambitious vision and be responsive to current and emerging needs.
I am confident the information outlined in the strategic plan will provide the public with a strong sense of the IoP’s operational priorities and will support transparency of our internal operations.
Risk-Based Compliance and Enforcement Framework
Prior to officially launching our operations, I asked the skilled police service liaison experts to develop a risk-based compliance and enforcement framework. This framework will serve as the operating philosophy for applying my oversight mandate. The intent is to propel greater insights and foresight into the causes of enduring policing and police governance issues, while articulating our approach to deciding when and how to intervene with the tools in our toolbox. The framework is designed to maximize Ontario’s police services, boards, and other policing entities’ compliance with their responsibilities under the CSPA and its regulations. It sets out a consistent, risk-focused approach to how I, with the support of the IoP, will monitor compliance in policing, including how to identify and address potential shortcomings, and highlight leading practices to collectively raise the standards of police service and governance delivery.
Inspection Subject Matter Prioritization Framework and Methodology
Beyond inspections that are undertaken in response to public complaints, the IG can initiate inspections with a view of examining other critical issues in policing compliance and performance. As part of the IoP’s commitment to evidence-based decision-making, we have developed a subject matter prioritization framework. The framework will guide us in prioritizing and recommending new inspection topics, using a risk-based approach that targets areas where inspections can have the greatest impact on improving public safety across the policing sector. The framework promotes objectivity, transparency, impartiality and fairness in our inspection decision-making. It will also help the IoP define the value proposition behind our decision to inspect a particular topic – that is, why there is value for the policing sector and the public in the IoP examining a particular topic.
Also as part of readying ourselves of operations, the IoP undertook activities to test our inspection methodology – recognizing that our approach will continue evolve as we gain experience through our inspections work. Last year, and while the former Police Services Act and Adequacy and Effectiveness Regulation was still in force, the IoP initiated a pilot inspection of compliance with provincial Public Order Maintenance requirements by all municipal police services in the province, as well as the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). This pilot inspection yielded valuable operational insights about the approach taken to site-based inspections, document and material review components, and how to go ‘beyond compliance’ to highlight leading practices related to a specific policing topic or theme.
As I carry out my mandate as IG, I have asked the Inspections team to identify broader thematic inspections we will undertake in the coming years, utilizing our subject matter prioritization framework. This approach we will help us promote continuous improvement within Ontario’s policing sector.
Data Collection Pilot
High quality data collection and analysis is essential for understanding the gaps that need to be addressed and for highlighting best practices within police service delivery and governance. This year, I tasked the IoP’s data analytics experts to develop and test a data collection process designed to support my legislated duties under the CSPA.
The lessons learned from this project will help establish a transparent and more encompassing data collection process that will power insights, identify compliance trends and assist me in deciding what oversight tools to employ to improve Ontario policing and police governance performance. Naturally, establishing our data collection process will take time to develop and will necessarily evolve over time and with learnings. Our strategy is to build in increments, consistently evaluating our progress to ensure it meets our objectives and delivers value to the public sector. We greatly appreciate the engagement we have received from our police service and police service board pilot participants, and look forward to continuing our collaborations. We also look forward to sharing some of our data insights with the policing sector, to empower improved decision-making.
Performance Measurement Framework
There is currently no comprehensive or agreed-upon model of police performance measurement in Ontario, or in Canada, for that matter. Being able to collect performance data, analyze it and yield insights from that analysis is vital to highlighting where Ontario policing and police governance is performing well, and where improvements can be made.
As IG, I am committed to making progress in this area. Therefore, I asked the talented performance measurement experts in the IoP to develop a performance measurement framework in collaboration with our partners. The framework will increase our understanding of how well police services and boards are performing, how adequately and effectively policing services are being delivered locally or provincially, and highlight areas for potential intervention. The framework will also help strengthen public confidence and trust through transparent reporting on performance across the sector.
At its core, the framework will bring to life our vision of data-informed policing and governance that drives improved overall performance in Ontario. Of course, this type of initiative will take time to build, and to get right. Also here, our approach is to build it incrementally, constantly testing what we have done to ensure it achieves our goals and provides value to the public and the sector.
Digital Presence
As a statutory oversight position that serves the public interest, it is important to be transparent about my work. As well, given my mandate to receive public complaints, I needed a mechanism for the public to learn about my mandate, make complaints and track progress on inspections, findings and the use of other statutory tools available to me as IG. Therefore, I tasked the IoP’s communications experts with establishing a digital presence to facilitate this transparency and accessibility
We now have an independent website that explains the roles and responsibilities of the IG and the IoP. This platform also allows the public to file complaints online and serves as a rich source of information about our efforts to improve policing performance and enhance public safety in Ontario. Additionally, we have established a presence on social media (LinkedIn and X, formerly, Twitter) to share information about my mandate and updates on the activities taking place across the IoP.
Case Management System
Record keeping and the ability to access important information in a timely way are key ingredients to the successful operations of an oversight body. To carry out my legislated mandate effectively and efficiently, I asked the analytics experts to develop and launch a comprehensive case management system built for our purposes. The IoP’s internal system will provide us with streamlined processes for our operational activities, including complaints intake, investigations, inspections and police liaison services. The system seeks to provide us with the real-time information we need while reducing administrative burdens and optimizing resource allocation. All of this work was crucial in ensuring that the IoP was operationally ready to deliver on my mandate once the CSPA came into force on April 1, 2024.
Intentional Recruitment and Training of Staff
Since 2020, we have recruited talented and passionate professionals from pools both internal and external to the Ontario Public Service to join the IoP in fulfilling our vision of making everyone in Ontario safer. The IoP’s diverse workforce reflects Ontario’s gender, racial and cultural diversity, and brings an impressive range of experience and skill sets. The IoP’s professionals are committed to using their professional skills to drive improved performance in policing and police governance in the province.
My team comprises in-house data and analytics experts who promote data-informed approaches to policing, staff with front-line and more senior policing experience and technical regulatory expertise who deliver our inspections and investigations processes, and members with extensive legal, policy and communications experience. The IoP team also has experience working in spaces of performance measurement, governance, First Nations policing and community development. Additionally, I have established a Training Unit within the IoP that is committed to the ongoing development of initiatives to fit our evolving needs, including those mandated in the CSPA. The Training Unit provides the IoP’s professionals with customized offerings that are responsive to both internal corporate needs and my public-facing operational mandate.
Engaging with the Policing and Police Governance Sector
In the year leading up to the CPSA coming into force, the IoP committed to engaging the broader policing sector to support them in their transition to the new legislative framework.
Broader Engagement with the Sector
In 2023, in my role as IG, I was honoured to deliver keynote and other presentations to the policing and police governance sector. In addition, members of the IoP were featured presenters, panelists and delegates at several sector conferences and seminars, including the OACP Annual Conference, OAPSB Annual General Meeting and Labour Conference, PAO Annual General Meeting and Conference, and the 14th Annual Law of Policing Conference – where we engaged a range of local, national and international actors that operate within the policing and police governance sector. These opportunities allowed us to introduce the role and mandate of the IG, share our vision to driving improvements in policing and police governance performance, and provide information and recommendations to support the sector’s readiness for the transition. These efforts to engage, raise awareness and educate have continued into this year, and will always be an important part of our approach.
Through our wide-ranging and consistent engagements with police services and boards, we gained essential perspectives to guide some of our decision-making and identify potential proactive inspection topics using our risk-based prioritization framework. We also introduced early information on our data collection process with police services and boards, securing their participation in testing the process before a province-wide roll out. I appreciate the engagement and feedback we have received so far as we work together to develop a transparent and robust data collection solution.
In 2023, we focused on planning for continued engagement with the policing sector once the CSPA came into force the following year. Based on our early insights, we identified areas where advisory support might be most needed, and what information needed to be shared. As a result, we participated in the planning for the CSPA Summit hosted in February 2024, gathering members of policing associations, boards and police chiefs across Ontario, and focusing on major changes in Ontario’s policing framework. As a result of our proactive planning, the IoP was prepared to deliver a detailed presentation that featured our legislative mandate, unveiled our risk-based compliance and enforcement framework, and unpacked our approach to performance measurement and data collection.
Local Engagement with the Sector
Last year, we also continued to engage locally with the policing sector we oversee as part of our liaison, advisory and monitoring function. Through our Police Services Advisors, we provided information, guidance and support to police service boards and police services to help them prepare to meet their legislated obligations under the CSPA, identify and mitigate local issues before they became critical, and overall, improve performance in police service delivery.
We also prioritized local, in-person engagement with all 43 municipal police services and boards across the province, and the OPP. It is important to me that we engage with those we oversee in the communities they serve. We sought to use these ‘IG Tours’ to provide clarity on aspects of my role as IG, answer questions about the IoP’s work, understand the unique nature of policing in each community in Ontario, and provide our assurance that it is in our collective interest to support police services, boards and others in meeting their new responsibilities under the CSPA to ensure success. These tours have been successful, and the insights gleaned will inform our evolving operations. I look forward to continuing to prioritize honest engagement with the sector we oversee
IG Reporting Requirements under the CSPA
The CSPA requires that my annual report pertains only to operations under the CSPA. Of course, the CSPA was not in force in 2023, and as such, there were no such operations. Therefore, on this annual report, I am reporting that were no activities of the IG in relation to the requirements listed in section 103 of the CSPA.
This means that in the 2023 calendar year, there were no IG activities, as follows:
I) No inspections were conducted,
II) No complaints were dealt with under section 106 and 107,
III) No notifications were sent to the Complaints Director or the SIU Director,
IV) No Directions were issued under section 125, and
V) No Measures were imposed under section 126.
In 2023 the CSPA was not yet in force, and therefore, I did not yet have the statutory mandate to oversee compliance of the police service boards, O.P.P. detachment boards, First Nation O.P.P. boards, chiefs of police, special constable employers, police services, and prescribed policing providers with this Act and the regulations.
I do not have any other prescribed matters to report on under this section.
