Deployment

Provincial Compliance Requirements

 

Section 18(3) of PSA Ontario Regulation 3/99 required that every POU, whether maintained by one police force or on a combined or regional or co-operative basis:

 

  1. shall consist of a unit supervisor and at least four squads of seven officers, including the squad leader; and,

  2. must be able to be deployed in a reasonable time. 

     

The CSPA has expanded slightly the complement requirement with Ontario Regulation 392/23, stating that a POU shall have the capacity to deploy to a public order incident, at a minimum, a section of the unit consisting of,

 

  1. at least 32 police officers, including a section leader; and,

  2. a public order commander.

     

The CSPA requirements also now identify considerations that bear on the reasonable time for deployment criteria for POUs, stating that the POU must be able to be deployed in a reasonable time to ensure:

 

  • the policing needs of the community;
  • the geographic and socio-demographic characteristics of the police service’s area of policing responsibility;
  • the total population and population density of the police service’s area of policing responsibility;
  • the presence of critical infrastructure in the location where the POU is to be deployed;
  • that information about public order incidents in the police service’s area of policing responsibility within at least the previous three years, including information about the scope and severity of the incidents; and, 

  • best practices in relation to response times for POUs.

     

The IoP’s Findings

 

Our inspection revealed that there is a 184 per cent increase in POU deployment in Ontario between 2018 and 2022 (see “Fig 2”). Recent world events have had an unprecedented impact on the deployment of POUs. With the increased deployments of POUs over the last five years, many Chiefs, the OPP Commissioner, and boards are becoming more focused on the increased demands on their POU members. These events, and the public order maintenance they require locally, significantly impact police resources and budgets. Importantly, our inspection revealed that despite this increase in demand, there have been no situations where current POU resources were unable to deploy within a reasonable amount of time. 

 

The IoP takes note that police services that have their own POU are actively looking to increase complements to balance potential fatigue of current resources, especially as members are redeployed from their regular duties to POUs. In other words, the long-term sustainability of the current resource landscape is a matter that requires ongoing attention.

i. Composition of a Public Order Unit

 

As previously noted, under the PSA a POU had to consist of a unit supervisor and at least four squads of seven officers, including the squad leader (28 police officers in total). Under the CSPA, a POU must now deploy, at a minimum, a section of the unit consisting of at least 32 police officers, including a section leader, and a public order commander. POU commanders that were interviewed recognize the change in POU composition from the PSA to the CSPA. Additionally, some services are taking proactive steps to augment their current public order complement through other emergency response units that take part in annual public order maintenance training and can be more readily deployed to augment their numbers. 

 

ii. Deployment in a Reasonable Time

 

The IoP recognizes that the requirement to deploy a POU within a “reasonable time” necessarily includes subjective determinations. There is no set requirement – in terms of hours within which deployment must occur – to use as a benchmark. The varying geography within the province will interpret that what is reasonable in one context, may not be reasonable in another context. For example, what might be considered a reasonable deployment time within an urban centre may not be reasonable for deployment in rural areas of the province. 

 

POU members were asked in their interviews about their ability to deploy in a reasonable time. The inspection revealed no situations where current resources were unable to react within what the IoP considers a reasonable amount of time, having regard to the factors now applicable through the CSPA. Operational POUs are constantly in contact with each other, including through the Hub, to minimize any potential delays in required deployment. 

 

As mentioned above, subsection 18(3) of the now revoked Ontario Regulation 3/99 only required POUs to be “able to be deployed in a reasonable time.” The CSPA expands on this by requiring POUs to be able to be deployed in a reasonable time having regard to specific criteria that helps define the reasonableness requirement. The IoP strongly suggests that these new requirements should spur analysis and collaboration by boards and services across the province – both those with their own POUs, and those that rely on other services for the POU resources. Boards and services should work to determine what a ‘reasonable time’ for POU deployment should be locally, in different sets of public safety risk circumstances, with consideration of the new CSPA factors. Those services that rely on another’s POU should necessarily integrate that service into this analytical process so that that service’s capacity issues are taken into account. Of course, ultimately, the IG is mandated under the CSPA to determine whether the ‘reasonable time’ standard is met in a specific situation, either in response to a public complaint, a proactive inspection, or a determination under section 20 of the CSPA about the adequacy and effectiveness of policing locally. That said, boards and chiefs collaborating in determining local service standards for POU deployment is both consistent with boards’ governance role and may well inform any evaluation the IG ultimately conducts.

 

When it comes to real-time deployment, our Inspection found that different police services use different platforms to notify members of public order events and that both on-duty and off-duty members are required. Although there are different platforms used, they were all effective platforms that addressed unique local needs to facilitate POU deployment in a reasonable time. 

 

Services are encouraged to go beyond the minimum and find ways to incorporate effective planning, intelligence-gathering and analysis resources when preparing to deploy for a particular public order event. During the inspection, the IoP was impressed by the work of PLTs. A more organized PLT network between services could share intelligence, identify collaborative strategies to engage demonstrators, and promote education on issues relevant to the public order context.