Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford is promising to hire 1,000 new police officers if elected, saying the city’s current five-year hiring plan isn’t enough to keep pace with population growth.
City hall is currently in the midst of a five-year hiring plan to replenish the Toronto Police Service, but Bradford says it falls short. He has not said how he would pay for the additional officers.
On Thursday, Chief Myron Demkiw said 2026 is continuing to see major crime indicators take downward trends, including with shootings and homicides. But Demkiw said it doesn’t take much to undermine those gains when it comes to the public’s perception of public safety.
“It only takes one shooting to undermine the community sense of safety,” he told the Toronto Police Service Board.
Bradford agreed by saying the city’s current plan to hire new officers, while a good start, isn’t enough to keep Torontonians safe. Comparing the city with other major city’s, the Beaches-East York councillor said Toronto isn’t keeping up with the amount of officers per capita.
“When you measure ourselves up against Canadian peer cities or international cities abroad, Toronto is still coming up short,” Bradford said.
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But asked repeatedly by reporters at an announcement across the street from Toronto police headquarters, Bradford wouldn’t say how much his pitch would cost or whether it would require tax increases to fund.
“We will roll those numbers out later in the campaign,” he said after several attempts.
Coun. Shelley Carroll, who chairs both the Budget Committee and the Toronto Police Service Board, did provide a rough estimate when asked by Global News. “Way more than tens of millions,” she said. “At that point you’re talking well over $100 million.”
Both she and Mayor Olivia Chow also questioned the viability of Bradford’s plan, pointing out the city only gets a certain amount of spaces at the police college and Toronto’s current five-year hiring plan is already hitting those limits.
“It’s the maximum number of officers you can possibly train and graduate, which is 360, and that is our plan,” said Chow.
A spokesperson from the mayor’s office said in a statement that over the past two years, 720 new officers have been hired as part of the hiring plan. If the city continues to top out its enrolment for the remaining three years, that number would jump to 1,800 officers, with 502 if them being net new based on current retention assumptions.
Whichever candidate plan wins over voters, many are quick to point out that research has shown spending more on policing doesn’t always yield a lower crime rate.
Melanie Seabrook from the University of Toronto said studies, including ones she’s helped co-author, showed mixed or no evidence that increasing money for local police in Canada has actually reduced crime.
“There’s a lot stronger evidence around investing in other sectors, such as housing, public health, mental health, support sectors that are able to prevent crime in the long run,” Seabrook said.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
