Crown attorneys have been told to help rein in skyrocketing overtime inside the Toronto Police Service by limiting their contact with officers at a time when criminal cases are at risk of being tossed due to the slow disclosure of evidence, according to emails obtained by the Star.
In an email sent to colleagues last month, the director of the Ministry of the Attorney General’s guns and gangs unit warned that Toronto police are in a “budget crunch,” and that one “pressing concern” is the practice that lets officers bill three to four hours of overtime for having to work when not on shift, such as taking a call from a Crown attorney — no matter the length of the call.