Property Disposal Initiative (Details)

Name of province/ territory:

Ontario

City/ Region:

Toronto

Description of Initiative:

Reduction of inventory levels associated with items seized in relation to judicial proceedings/investigations.

Initiative Key Objectives:

The initiative has several objectives:

  • increased compliance with the Criminal Code of Canada by ensuring seized items are disposed/released in accordance with Section 490;
  • increased compliance with the Criminal Code by ensuring officers obtain Reports to a Justice (Form 5.2) for seized assets;
  • decreased risk management issues associated with the inappropriate disposal of seized items;
  • increased timeliness and promptness by which items are disposed/released, thereby reducing inventory levels and storage/management costs; and
  • decreased capital funding required to relocate inventory to the Property and Evidence Management Unit’s (PEMU) new facility in 2013.

Section Responsible for Implementation:

Property and Evidence Management Unit

Key Contact:

Brenda Radix
Brenda.Radix@torontopolice.on.ca

Groups/ Agencies/ Key Partners Involved:

  • other government departments/agencies

Level of Involvement (consultative - information sharing) and/or cooperative - direct involvement):

Cooperative—direct involvement

The first step in implementing this initiative was the development of a formalized forfeiture order protocol with the Ministry of the Attorney General to address seized assets at the conclusion of judicial proceedings. This subsequently led to the establishment of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which was executed between MAG and the Toronto Police Service (TPS), and changes to TPS internal governance.

The second step of this initiative involved the development of software to track outstanding Reports to a Justice (Form 5.2) and outstanding property dispositions, and provide officers with an effective and accessible medium to update Report to a Justice information and associated dispositions. This online tracking system is known as the Property Disposition Inquiry (PDI) application.

The third step was the development and implementation of standardized training for over 4,400 officers with respect to the Criminal Code requirements associated with obtaining Reports to a Justice, and also the use of the PDI.

The final step was and is an ongoing physical disposal initiative to address the dispositions provided by officers since the implementation of the PDI. To put this into perspective, when the PDI was launched service-wide there were over 70,000 historical items which were not linked to an arrest that required dispositions. That number has now been reduced to under 4,000 items.

Amount of Time Initiative has been in Place:

The MOU was executed on June 6, 2008. The pilot project for the PDI application was launched at 42 Division in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and then enhanced and subsequently rolled-out service-wide on September 13, 2010.

Reason for Undertaking the Initiative:

Economic/fiscal:

Increased timeliness and promptness by which items are disposed/released, thereby reducing inventory levels and storage/management costs. Decreased capital funding required to relocate inventory to the Property and Evidence Management Unit’s new facility in 2013.

Risk Management Issues:

In order to ensure officer compliance with the Criminal Code and to reduce potential civil litigation associated to the improper disposal of seized items, the forfeiture order protocol was developed, the MOU executed, and the software developed.

Resources Required to Implement this Initiative:

The set-up costs involved soft-dollar costs only. The initial development of the software and subsequent enhancements required the services of one IT programmer for approximately six months. In addition, two members from PEMU facilitated the standardized training of the 4,400+ officers for a period of four months.

The actual physical disposal of the inventory involved hard-dollar costs. As a result of the significant number of dispositions received pursuant to the implementation of the PDI, it has been necessary to use staff at premium pay rates to process the backlog. Between September 2010 and June 2012, a total of 3,326 hours have been dedicated to this initiative on an overtime/callback basis at a cost of $149,936.

Method of Implementation:

This initiative was initially implemented through a pilot project and later phased in.

Key Outcomes of the Initiative:

This initiative was extremely successful and has increased the efficiency and effectiveness of both police officers and members of PEMU. The initiative has eliminated the manual processing of over 25,000 disposition authorization forms annually, provided officers with an effective tool that allows them to track and update outstanding Reports to a Justice and property dispositions on a 24 hours a day / seven days a week basis, resulted in the redeployment of one full-time equivalent employee (FTE), reduced inventory levels, and has increased compliance with the Criminal Code.

Availability of a Communication Strategy:

Yes

Key Messages used to Publicize the Initiative:

Unit commanders and supervisors have the ability to track and monitor officer compliance dispositions on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week basis through the PDI, and the associated statistics are provided to the Chief of Police on a monthly basis as part of the Executive Dashboard.

Forms of Evaluation by which the Initiative will be Assessed:

  • internal
  • quantitative

Evaluation Completed or Community Feedback Received:

Yes

Summary of the Outcomes:

In addition to the outcomes specified in "Key Outcomes of the Initiative," the feedback received from officers has been overwhelmingly favourable, and the members of IT and PEMU who were involved in the development of the PDI recently received the Chief of Police Excellence Award for this initiative.

Summary of the Performance Measure Data Collected:

N/A

Economics of Policing Pillars:

Further Details:

Officers have now been provided with a tool to track and update information relating to seized items dispositions on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week basis; unit commanders and supervisors can track officer compliance dispositions on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week basis; the duplication of efforts required to process property dispositions has now been eliminated; and the manual processing of 25,000 hard-copy disposition forms has been eliminated—all of which has resulted in the redeployment of one FTE.

Additional Comments or Suggestions:

N/A

Record Entry Date:

2013-08-01

Date modified: