DRUG TESTING ORDERED FOR TOP POLICE OFFICERS

Aim Is To Improve Public Confidence

Union Vows To Fight 'Intrusion'

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 will 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 announcing the measures, Chief Julian Fantino
acknowledged drug testing is a "highly contentious matter." It's 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 promised the union
would fight the plan. "It will be challenged by the association at every
level, into the courts and all the way," he said.

"We have to respect their right and entitlement to ensure that the rights
of their members are protected," Fantino said later. "Undoubtedly there
will be areas of disagreement, but I have no doubt that the real winners
today are the people of the city of Toronto."

Fantino, meanwhile, stood by an earlier promise to be the first on the
force to take a drug test. But with less than two months left on the job,
he won't have to.

"I'm leaving, as you know, on the 28th of February, but I'm willing to do
it," he said last night.

Fantino is said to be the front-runner to replace Dr. James Young as the
province's commissioner of emergency management. The job, which has opened
up just as Fantino's contract was about to expire, is to oversee Ontario's
emergency planning and preparedness -- working across provincial ministries
and with other levels of government in the event of a disaster.

The closer scrutiny of police officers announced yesterday will be the
final recommendation to be implemented from the report on preventing police
misconduct, written by retired judge George Ferguson.

Fantino retained Ferguson in August 2001, after an internal police audit
turned up discrepancies in the budget for paying police informants, known
as the fink fund.

Ferguson's mandate grew, and in January 2003, he delivered an exhaustive
two-volume report with 32 recommendations aimed at rooting out and
preventing corruption, while shoring up public confidence in Toronto's
police force.

Ferguson's prescriptions, which weren't made public until last February,
included improved recruiting, hiring, training and promotion practices;
moving internal affairs out of headquarters; overhauling the handling of
informants; a snitch line for the public and police to report misconduct;
and protection for whistle-blowers.

But the most controversial was drug testing for "high risk" jobs.

When 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, where Ferguson singled out the New York Police Department's
random testing program -- where officers who fail the test are
automatically fired -- as "effective and fair to all."

But, as Ferguson wrote in his report, drug testing is on trickier legal
ground in Canada. "Recent decisions made by Canadian courts and
pronouncements made by both the Canadian and Ontario Human Rights
Commissions would appear to effectively preclude the introduction of a
similar program in this province," he wrote.

"I'm content, I'm delighted they're doing it, of course (here in Toronto),"
Ferguson told the Star last night.

"The whole thing is on an informed consent basis," he 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," Ferguson said.

"High risk" areas requiring tighter screening will include the chief,
senior officers, and members of the drug squad, holdup squad, emergency
task force, homicide and professional standards units, according to Tom
Imrie, manger of occupational health and safety for the Toronto Police Service.

Imrie, a former detective sergeant, will oversee drug testing and
psychological evaluation.

"This isn't rocket science," he said. "This is an occupational heath and
safety issue. This is not disciplinary in nature or punitive. The intent is
to ensure the safety of our workers as well as the public."

Screening will begin with people applying for positions with the designated
units, Imrie said. Later it will be a voluntary condition of employment in
that unit and may extend to random tests.

Members of the elite emergency task force (ETF) already go through a
screening process prior to selection, he said.

The drug-screening regime will use urine tests to seek nine illegal drugs,
including cocaine, heroin, methadone, PCP, MDMA (ecstasy) and THC (found in
marijuana). It will also test for the legal pain medication
oxycodone.Toronto Police Services Board chair Pam McConnell called drug
testing a safety net rather than a preventative measure.

"It means they are being monitored," she said yesterday. "If they get into
a circumstance where they've been pulled over the line, it quickly
identifies that and as a result we're able to bring them back in, get them
the counselling they need and get them reassigned."

The measures proposed by Ferguson -- who has worked for the past year with
the police on putting his report into action -- are expected to restore
confidence shaken in the past year by a series of scandals.

Last January, an RCMP-led task force announced 40 criminal charges against
six former drug-squad cops, including allegations of theft, perjury and
fabricating evidence.

In April, the downtown 52 Division plainclothes unit was disbanded and 55
Police Services Act charges were laid against nine officers -- including a
son of former police chief Bill McCormack -- amid allegations of police
involvement in the shakedowns of Entertainment District bars.

And four other officers -- including another son of the former chief --
have been charged under the police act over their alleged relationship with
a used-car dealer who had ties to underworld figures.

None of the allegations has been proved in court.

* With files from Prithi Yelaja, Tracy Huffman and Catherine Porter