Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow unveiled a plan on Monday to hire hundreds of new police officers across the city and dozens of new 911 operators.
The announcement is part of a five-year hiring plan that will see the Toronto Police Service grow by 720 new officers in the first two years. The City is also working to boost 911 response times amid long waits.
According to newly released data, the current average 911 wait time in Toronto is approximately 28 seconds. That is a drop from 2024, which averaged one minute and seven seconds. However, it is still longer than the standard set out by the National Emergency Number Association, which requires 90 per cent of calls to be answered within 15 seconds and 95 per cent within 20 seconds.
In October 2024, CityNews reported that delays in getting through to the Toronto Police Service’s 911 communications centre were still prevalent for those seeking emergency assistance.
“When you need help fast in an emergency, you shouldn’t have to wait,” said Mayor Chow.
“We are hiring more 911 operators and more emergency responders so that help is there when you need it. Alongside investments in community programs, especially supporting young people, we’re building a safer and stronger city for everyone.”
Chow said at least 60 emergency operators have been hired so far this year and another 30 people are expected to join the team before 2026.
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“With our landmark multi-year hiring plan, we’re delivering measurable results — faster 911 response times, more officers on the street, and crime rates trending down across the board,” said Don Valley North Coun. Shelley Carroll, who is also chair of the Toronto Police Service Board.
The latest data from Toronto police and several GTA police forces show that crime rates have dropped significantly over the last several years.
“This is proof that when we invest in people and give them the tools they need, Toronto becomes a safer city for everyone,” Carroll added.
Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association — the union representing front-line officers and civilians, was cautiously optimistic when asked about Monday’s announcement.
“We have a long way to go, but … we’re headed in the right direction,” he told CityNews.
When it comes to issues still facing the 911 system, Campbell said the training regime currently in place for new communicators needs to be overhauled.
“I think one of the biggest things is we have about 50 per cent of our 911 operators that fail training,” he said, adding he believes the new superintendent overseeing the centre will work on.
“We got to get that rate much higher in order to properly deal with the staffing issue down there.”
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During Monday’s news conference, Supt. Greg Watts acknowledged more needs to be done when asked about by CityNews about operator training.
“Our reality is being a 911 operator is an unbelievably stressful job and it’s not for everybody. We do have a high fail rate, we’re working to fix that,” he said, adding there have been some improvements in the rate.
“We are currently unearthing everything we do in terms of how we’re hiring, how we’re training, how we’re doing on-desk coaching so we can solve for that. We need to recognize that as society changes, we also need to change.”
Officers have been increasingly looking to technological upgrades as part of the solution to ongoing woes.
Dubbed next-generation 911 (NG911), all 911 communications centres are being required by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to switch over to digital services by 2027, as old analog infrastructure can’t keep up with current needs.
The initial use of NG911 in Toronto will involve the use of automated text messages to conduct an initial call-back if there is a sudden disconnection.
Callers who disconnect from 911 can expect to receive a text message asking them to respond with a ‘1’ if they still need to speak with a call-taker and ‘9’ if they do not. If they press ‘1’, they will be connected with someone
CityNews also asked Watts about what’s being done to address wait times for the Toronto police non-emergency line (*TPS or 416-808-2222).
During a recent call to the non-emergency line, a CityNews journalist waited four hours and 46 minutes to speak with someone before they decided to hang up.
“Because we have been prioritizing our 911 calls, yes, absolutely our non-emergency wait times so we need to solve for that,” Watts said.
As of Aug. 17, he said there will be a new suite of options for when people call the non-emergency line in an effort to better redirect people to where the calls need to go.
Watts said people will be asked to enter their cellphone number if they have one and then several links will be texted to them. He touted changes to the service’s online reporting system to allow people to report certain issues through the website.
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Carroll didn’t specifically address the lengthy wait time scenario cited by CityNews, but said the focus needs to be on life-threatening situations first.
“While we’re going to keep working technologically to get that non-emergency response down, we ask people to remember that if you’re in one of those emergency situations you want to take priority,” she said, adding she expects online reporting to have a positive impact.
“The non-emergency stuff, we’re going to get to it as fast as we can but within every shift there’s going to come an hour or a minute where you have to take a backseat to some very dire emergencies and we’ll get to you as soon as we can.”
Campbell said it is “unacceptable” for people to wait hours on hold to get through on the non-emergency line.
“After years of non-investment, that’s the situation we’re in … people in the city of Toronto, they pay a lot of taxes and they deserve proper service,” he said.
“We’re not there yet, a long ways to go, but with continued hiring that the mayor is committed to until 2029 hopefully to get to that point we’ll be in a better place.”