This article was dealt with in the other police thread, but I see you tried an end run.
This comment is a fine example of John Sewell's math and analytical skills;
"Here’s a second example of gravy. Police work three shifts a day: a 10-hour day shift; a 10-hour evening shift; and an eight-hour night shift. That means that in every 24 hours, police are paid to work 28 hours. The shift overlaps do not occur during the evening hours when calls for service are highest. Getting police to work just 24 hours every day — cutting out the four hours of gravy — would require about 15 per cent less resources, in itself a saving of about $100 million a year."
They are not paid to working 28 hours days. The overlapping of shifts serve a very important purpose. It means that somebody is out on the street at all times and not at the station clocking in a clocking.
I'll let the words of a 40 year veteran of Toronto Police speak about Mr Sewells remarks though.
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/gary_grant/2011/01/05/16774766.html
On Wednesday, former Toronto mayor and local crank John Sewell offered his advice to Mayor Rob Ford on how he could stem the flow of gravy at the Toronto Police Service.
The oh-so-cute column in the Toronto Star was Sewell being Sewell: Smug, arrogant, condescending and presenting totally incorrect information as factual.
The $915-million police budget needs examination. Instead Sewell offers a malicious and misleading attack. I’m dismayed the Star would print this drivel.
What else can you say about a column that states, based on the number of calls to police, each of our force’s 5,600 officers responds to a call for service every other day, spending the rest of their shifts driving aimlessly around the city 24/7, 365 days a year waiting for a radio call. How absurd.
I guarantee you the computer screens of every primary response officer are filled with calls of varying priority. Their biggest problem in the day is how to complete the backlog of calls not updating their Facebook status.
However, policing in this city is not just about answering radio calls. Who does Sewell think staff the units that deal with homicide, robbery, fraud, domestic violence, school safety, organized crime, victim services, sexual assault and child exploitation? Who does Sewell think provides the policing at events such as the G20, visits from foreign heads of state, Caribana, Pride, or even regularly keeps the peace in the Entertainment District every weekend?
Sewell “suspects” the reason police spend significantly more time investigating personal injury collisions than they did in the past is because they have “not a lot else to do.” This genius hasn’t bothered to keep up to date on the spectacular advancements in the field of collision reconstruction where highly trained officers utilize the latest technology to investigate traffic fatalities and those with serious personal injuries. This type of investigation has become the gold standard and is expected in our courts.
Not constructive
Sewell’s attack on the police isn’t constructive criticism or well meaning. It is just a long-time cop hater being a cop hater.
His opinion on the use of two-officer cars after 5 p.m. is a prime example. Sewell wrote research shows one-man cars are safer since a lone officer won’t take the same chances as two officers. I would love to see that research.
The ex-mayor, who is smarter than the rest of us, knows the real reason for the two-person cars is so officers can “drive around aimlessly during the evening hours” and police officers “are usually associated with Tim Hortons and doughnuts because they don’t have enough to do.”
Frankly, I think it is Sewell who doesn’t have enough to do.
I was a member of the Toronto Police Service for almost 40 years and served in a high-ranking capacity in the latter half of my career. Each year we were subjected to a rigorous budget process and did our utmost to achieve savings.
Were we perfect? No, and I am sure I could find some areas within the budget that could be trimmed.
What I wouldn’t do is attack the integrity and professionalism of the men and women of the Toronto Police who put their lives at risk to keep our city safe.
All you really need to know about my opinion of John Sewell’s article is this: In March of 1980, Michael Sweet, a young police officer with a wife and three little daughters, was gunned down while responding to a robbery call in downtown Toronto. The thugs that shot him left him on the floor to bleed to death, not allowing emergency personnel to take him to the hospital. The city was in shock and mourning.
The mayor of Toronto, John Sewell, could not be bothered to attend the funeral.
Once a jerk, always a jerk.
— Grant is a retired Toronto Police staff superintendent
