Toronto police suspensions have cost public $1.3M so far in 2024

Toronto taxpayers have spent roughly $1.3 million dollars so far in 2024 to pay the salaries of 31 suspended Toronto police officers, according to an exclusive database compiled by CBC News that surveyed reports about hundreds of Ontario police officers who were sent home with pay after being accused of misconduct or breaking the law.

The investigation collected publicly available information about officers across 44 police departments, including the Toronto Police Service. 

The Toronto police suspensions are related to a wide variety of allegations including gender-based violence, impaired driving, fraud, racial discrimination and drugs charges. The majority of officers were criminally charged. 

CBC News's data reveals that, between January 2013 and April 2024, 119 officers working for the Toronto Police Service were suspended a total of 130 times — some more than once. All were paid at their full salary, amounting to a total bill of $31 million dollars for taxpayers.

As of April 9, at least 31 Toronto police officers are still suspended, 69 went back to work, 12 resigned, five were fired, and three retired. CBC News was not able to determine the outcome of the remaining five.

The majority of officers were paid to stay home for nearly a year, but four were suspended with pay for more than seven years.

The data was based on publicly available information, compiled and verified through multiple news sources, police and Special Investigations Unit news releases as well as court and disciplinary records. Toronto Police Service said it has on average 30 suspensions a year, so there could be more paid suspensions than accounted for in the figures.

Jon Burnside, a city councillor who sits on the Toronto Police Services Board, said the public seeing someone accused of a serious crime while off-duty receiving public money for years erodes trust.

"It's ridiculous," said Burnside, a Toronto Police officer himself for about a decade prior to entering political life."When somebody is sitting on their rear end watching TV for seven years, it just really affects people's perception of the police and that makes it harder for everyone."

"Police have special authority, special powers, and they depend on the confidence that people have in them and in the system and this really detracts from that," he said.

CBC Toronto reached out to Toronto advocates, academics, politicians and those in leadership roles within police bodies to comment on the findings. Most who agreed to speak said they were supportive of any measure that could take away the pay of officers while suspended. But while recent legislation can take away the pay of officers while suspended under limited situations, many said the situations are too limited to significantly improve public trust and accountability. 

The Ontario Provincial Police and Toronto police reported the highest number of suspensions in the province between 2013 and 2024, but they're also the largest forces with 5,993 and 5,100 sworn officers respectively.

Suspended officers are a minority. Less than three per cent of the Toronto police force has faced suspensions in the last decade.

Three of the 10 officers who were suspended the longest over the past decade worked for the Toronto Police department. They are Const.Ioan-Florin Floria, Const. Leslie Nyznik and Const. Sameer Kara, who were all suspended with pay for more than seven years. Const. Kara and Nyznik were suspended for years before they were acquitted in a high-profile gang sexual assault criminal trial in 2021. They both came back to work after being paid, respectively, $1.03 million and $1.1 million. Kara, who has been suspended three times, is currently suspended for another charge, costing another $251,115.70 as of April 9.