Clarke’s error shouldn’t gut her career

Toronto’s first Black female superintendent cheated in her quest to alleviate inequities

On the day that Stacy Clarke was promoted to superintendent — first Black female superintendent in the 183-year history of the Toronto Police Service — she spoke about standing on the shoulders of many others who’d helped make it possible.

Specifically, Clarke cited her colleague, Insp. Sonia Thomas, who’d made her own historical mark on the force by becoming, in 2010, the service’s first Black senior officer. Thomas retired four years ago without ever achieving superintendent rank. There are 34 superintendents on the force.

“Truthfully, this is bigger than Stacy, and I know that,” said Clarke, noting that she’d watched Thomas making attempts to become a superintendent, and “not seeing it happen made me think it couldn’t happen. Representation matters and we need to see that these types of barriers can be broken. This is a powerful and significant moment for me.”

At the time, January of 2021, Clarke joined Supt. Isobel Granger, with Ottawa Police Service, as one of the highest-ranking Black female police officers in Canada. Granger retired last summer after 28 years of service.

Clarke’s professional resumé brimmed with achievements from her steady rise through the policing hierarchy: Community Response Unit, Youth Bureau, Homicide Unit, detective, sergeant, the Professional Standards and the Community Review project that focused on how police could enhance public trust and safety while delivering a bias-free service.

Because, of course, bias exists, as in any large enterprise, and systemic racism in particular has been a historically toxic element in policing across North America. A year ago, then-interim Toronto police chief James Ramer delivered an unprecedented apology to the city’s Black residents. “We have not done enough to ensure that every person in the city receives fair and unbiased policing. For this, as chief of police and on behalf of the service, I am sorry and I apologize unreservedly.”

The acknowledgment arose from then-newly released statistics that show Black people faced a disproportionate amount of police enforcement and use of force and were more likely to have an officer point a gun at them — whether perceived as armed or unarmed — than white people in the same situation.

It was from inside this culture that Clarke was operating through all her adult life, while also absorbing criticism from without by some Black leaders who questioned her commitment to the Black community — she may have been Black but she was nonetheless a cop, one of them. At an anti-Black racism rally outside police headquarters, Clarke was confronted by protesters who accused her of not doing enough for the community.

She took it in stride.

“What took place that day reaffirmed for me that I have to be at the table where important decisions are taken,” she said afterwards. “I truly have always believed that there needs to be a diverse presence within policing completely and the answers weren’t going to come if we were not represented at those tables. It also indicated there was a need for me to rise in the organization and amplify the voices of those who are affected.”

This background is all by way of providing a more fulsome portrait of this long-serving officer than what was presented at a disciplinary tribunal Thursday, where Clarke pleaded guilty to seven police act charges — three counts of breach of confidence, three counts of discreditable conduct, one count of insubordination — related to the force’s internal promotions process.

Doubtless, Clark’s otherwise sparkling career will be extolled by her defence lawyer when sentencing submissions are made later this year. Under the Police Services Act, every officer found guilty can face anything from reprimand to dismissal.

In the agreed statement of facts, Clarke admitted she’d leaked confidential information to multiple officers she’d been mentoring ahead of the interviews that are part of the rigorous process for promotion to sergeant. Candidates were required to pass a written exam and then be questioned by a three-person panel of senior cops that included Clarke. She acknowledged, in the agreed statement of facts (ASF), receiving an email in November 2021, as did all panel members, directing them to cease contact with their mentees before the interviews began. Despite this instruction, Clarke continued to help six of her candidates as they went through the exam stage and onto the interview phase.

One of her mentees, Const. Horace Harvey — a “longtime family friend” as described in the ASF (a conflict-of-interest detail Clarke didn’t disclose during the process, nor did she mention their mentormentee relationship) — pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct for accepting Clarke’s help while applying for promotion. Harvey was demoted from first-class to secondclass constable for six months. Five other officers involved have already received “unit level” discipline of between 10 and 20 days without pay.

Harvey is Black. Since the other candidates have never been publicly identified, it’s impossible to say whether they were racial minorities as well.

But that’s the thrust of the thing, really, isn’t it? That Clarke, eager to alleviate racial inequities, gave her mentees a boost and an edge.

Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons — and even “rightness” can be disputed — is always problematic. Means justifying the ends and all that.

There are enough resentful cops on the force already, disgruntled over alleged reverse racism — or preference for female candidates to address gender imbalance, for that matter — without Clarke giving them this kind of ammunition. It’s a disservice as well to candidates of colour who will be perceived as obtaining promotion without sufficient merit. That’s an easy and too common complaint to sling, in all professions.

Clarke, however well-intended, created a mess and it engulfed the police force in scandal. Further, while Clarke’s supporters contend that she was unfairly targeted, rank-and-file cops have constantly complained that senior officers in the police hierarchy are too often treated with kid gloves in disciplinary matters. So, they’ll be watching closely.

The bottom line is Clarke enabled cheaters. She was a cheater. And that is a very bad look.

Not bad enough, though, to throw the book at her.

The skin she’s in, her keen awareness of racial inequities from the inside-out, obviously animated Clarke in the choices she made. It shouldn’t gut a 25-year career.