Toronto police superintendent apologizes for helping black officers cheat

In emotional and raw testimony before a disciplinary tribunal, the Toronto Police Service’s first black superintendent apologized for helping racialized officers cheat on a promotion exam.

But the hearing also delved into how unfair the hiring process was for black candidates to begin with, and how a plan to fix it that was approved by a civilian oversight board was canceled without warning months before his actions.

“For me it was tremendously important to take responsibility for what I had done. I know it was not the right path,” said the Superintendent. Stacy Clarke said at the disciplinary hearing.

Clarke said he remained loyal to the Toronto Police Service despite the ostracism he felt after allegations of misconduct became public.

But through his testimony and that of McGill professor Wendell Adjetey, the court examined what Clarke called “the why,” which boiled down to a systemic failure to promote black officers.

Adjetey highlighted a 2021 Toronto Police Services Board meeting in which then-Mayor John Tory asked the service if it had structured the promotion process in a way that disadvantaged Black candidates.

“Maybe ask the chief and the service to do a little more to look into this and decide if there’s something wrong,” Tory said at the time, pointing to statistics that out of a pool of 58 black applicants, 13.7 percent were interviewed. and 1.7 percent were hired.

Adjetey said outside the hearing that favored officers often received special treatment and, thanks to the makeup of senior TPS staff, that treatment broke down along racial lines.

“They often benefited white men within the service. There was nepotism. There was favoritism and all kinds of issues. And it is common practice that senior officers, when advising, share information,” Adjetey said outside the hearing.

The proposed solution Clarke advocated was a new procedure that involved asking everyone questions in advance.

“It was based on feedback from 500 Toronto police officers, not 500 black officers, who thought the promotion process was unfair,” said Audrey Campbell of the Canadian Association of Jamaica, who testified on Clarke’s behalf.

The Toronto Police Service Board oversees the police service, and although it adopted the new plan, the police service did not put it into practice, Adjetey testified.

“Prior to its implementation, TPS made an executive decision without prior notice to suspend the new process and return to the original, unfair practice that members identified in the external review,” Adjetey wrote in a report submitted into evidence.

“It is logical that if TPS had implemented the new promotion process, Supt. “Clarke would not have felt the desperate need to level the playing field by providing black officers with interview questions,” he wrote.

It is unclear why the policy was never adopted. A TPS spokesperson said the service would not comment while the court was ongoing, but said it would respond after its conclusion.

“It was totally accepted and these officers really believed it would be implemented. And someone along the way decided they weren’t going to implement everything,” Campbell said outside the hearing.

It was in that context that Clarke shared the questions with six officers, he said.

Clarke became emotional as she described demeaning posts from retired officers, unflattering memes that circulated on social media and a threat that prompted a security review of her home, as well as how it all affected her children.

But he said he remained loyal to TPS and was hopeful for systemic change.

“I love my job. I love what I do. Some may say nonsense, but I still believe that we can do what we say we are going to do,” he said.

His testimony and cross-examination are expected to continue Thursday. TPS has said it will not fire her, but has said she will be demoted two ranks, reinstated after a year as inspector, and then returned to superintendent.

Clarke’s attorney accepted a demotion, but says she should be reinstated as superintendent after a year.