DRUG TESTS FOR COPS

Union Vows to Challenge Move

Police officers in "high-risk jobs"-- from the chief on down -- will have
to submit to drug testing, psychological evaluations and probes of their
bank accounts starting March 1.

Announced yesterday, the controversial measures would be the last of the
recommendations put into action from a report on how to repair public
confidence in the scandal wracked Toronto Police Service.

In a news release, Chief Julian Fantino acknowledged that drug testing is a
"highly contentious matter," opposed by rank-and-file and many senior
officers alike.

Toronto Police Association President Dave Wilson called the plan "an
absolute intrusion on the lives of our officers" and said the union would
fight it. "It will be challenged by the association at every level, into
the courts and all the way," he said.

Fantino, meanwhile, stood by an earlier promise to take a drug test. "I'm
leaving, as you know, on the 28th of February, but I'm willing to do it,"
he said.

Fantino is said to be the front runner to replace Dr. James Young as
Ontario's commissioner of emergency management.

The closer scrutiny of police officers is the last of the recommendations
in the report on preventing police misconduct, written by retired judge
George Ferguson.

If the plan goes ahead, Toronto will be the first police service in Canada
to test officers for illegal drug use. Such testing is common in the United
States.

"The whole thing is on an informed consent basis," Ferguson said. "If a
member of the service does not wish to ... be subject to the testing plan,
then that person will not be disciplined. That person will just not be
assigned to or promoted to those areas."