Officer’s appointment draws ire

Police service’s commitment to Black communities questioned over head of internal discipline

The Toronto Police Service’s commitment to repairing its relationship with the city’s Black communities is being questioned following the appointment of a senior Toronto cop to lead the service’s internal investigations team despite a career that includes the on-duty shooting deaths of two Black men.

Although Supt. Richard Shank’s appointment to the head of the Professional Standards Unit in October 2021 first went largely unnoticed, it made headlines for the first time late last month, with critics noting he occupies a crucial and high-profile role at a time when the service is under fire for systemic discrimination.

In June, then-chief James Ramer apologized to Black and other racialized communities over significant racial disparities in how Toronto police officers use force. Faced with questions about how the service would deal with allegations of racism at the level of individual officers, Ramer repeatedly pointed to existing processes — processes like the one Shank now leads.

Shank was cleared of any wrongdoing in both on-duty deaths, which happened in the1990s. In the first, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) found Shank was “clearly” justified in firing his weapon. The SIU charged Shank with manslaughter in the second case. An initial trial ended in a hung jury; he was acquitted at a second muchpublicized trial.

As the head of the force’s professional standards unit, Shank now oversees internal discipline in cases of alleged police misconduct — including in high-profile cases involving the use of force against Black Torontonians.

Regardless of his professional qualifications, that fact raises a clear problem of optics, lawyers, policing experts and Black community leaders told the Star.

The promotion is more evidence the Toronto Police Service, “simply doesn’t get it, like doesn’t understand the importance of public perception of what they do both in terms of policing on the street as well as the administrative decisions that they make,” said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto whose expertise is in race and justice issues.

“I scratch my head when I see this unfolding because of the previous commitments to building relationships, healthy relationships, with communities, specifically the Black community,” added longtime antigun advocate Louis March. “We are concerned.”

In a lengthy email responding to Star questions, the service emphasized it considered the “totality” of Shank’s work in his promotion and placement.

The email included details of Shank’s rise through the ranks, a long list of his professional accolades as well as a statement of support from Chief Myron Demkiw.

“Supt. Shank has a demonstrated record of service to our community,” Demkiw said. “His most recent appointment two years ago, approved by the Command, was supported by his work of over 30 years as a police officer in some of the most complex policing roles in our city. He performed with the highest levels of professionalism and dedication. Since his time in this most recent role, his work has further solidified the confidence of the Service in him.”

A further statement from the service read: “Reference to incidents that occurred decades ago, especially where no misconduct was found, risks misrepresenting who Rick is as both a police officer and a person; and unfairly attacks him for the decision made by the Service to appoint him to his current position.”

It continued: “We are listening and are working with (Toronto’s Black community) to continue developing strategies to confront the harmful impacts of systemic racism and to provide the equitable police services that they deserve and expect.”

Reached by the Star, Shank referred all questions to the service’s communications team.

According to the Toronto police statement, Shank’s career has been exemplary, including no disciplinary record, a string of accolades and leadership in several high-profile projects.

Among his previous roles was running the force’s Public Safety Response Team in their renewed mandate to focus on gun and gang violence with a clear objective not to stigmatize the neighbourhoods they police. He has also been recognized for several complex search and seizure operations, police noted, such as Project Black Hawk from 2006 to 2009, which led to the seizure of 51 loaded handguns.

Lisa Kostakis, the chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, which was responsible for approving Shank’s promotion to superintendent but not his placement with professional standards, said in an emailed statement she was in “full support” of the statements from Demkiw and the service.

A letter sent internally by the Toronto police Senior Officers’ Organization and dated Feb. 24 questioned the timing of the concerns, in particular in a recent blog post from author, journalist and antiBlack racism advocate Desmond Cole who routinely criticizes Toronto police senior leadership both in person and online.

“While incredibly rare for most members, Supt. Shank was involved in two separate incidents where he had to defend his life, or the (lives) of others, in the lawful execution of his duties,” the letter to members reads.

It went on to say: “Withholding promotion on the basis that a member was involved in historical incidents, for which they were cleared, would be highly improper and unjust.”

Cole, speaking to the Star, said he highlighted Shank’s appointment this year after seeing it noted in past bulletins of the activist group the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition (TPAC). He said he decided to write about it because he knew some of Shank’s history and had not seen it reported elsewhere.

“What my reporting shows and what Shank’s promotion shows is that police will always try to justify their violence, no matter how outrageous or destructive that it is,” Cole said. “The idea of inevitable violence tells Black people if you’re affected that’s just too bad for you and it’s probably actually your own fault.”

In 1993, Shank himself became the subject of an SIU investigation in the death of 20-year-old Ian Coley, a Black man Shank and a fellow officer pursued on foot after pulling over his car. Shank later testified at a coroner’s inquest that Coley had pointed a handgun at him as he was scaling a fence to escape.

Then-SIU director Howard Morton said he was “clearly satisfied” Shank was “justified in discharging his firearm,” noting he had made “a courageous and admirable effort to tackle Mr. Coley in order to disarm and gain control of him without the use of deadly force.”

In the second case four years later, the SIU, under a different director, decided instead that charges were justified.

According to reporting from his subsequent trial, Shank had been assigned to the force’s drug squad and was acting as a “road boss” on March 30, 1997, when he ordered officers to box in the 31-year-old Hugh Dawson’s car at a traffic light in Scarborough,

Dawson was said to be a suspected drug dealer, the court heard; Shank and one other officer fired at least10 bullets — nine from Shank’s weapon — killing Dawson as he sat behind the steering wheel.

Shank’s initial trial ended in a hung jury. A second jury acquitted him of the charge.

Carl James, a York University professor and expert on race issues, said the decision to elevate Shank to his current position despite his connection to these high-profile cases is a reflection of troubling policing culture.

“Unless that culture shifts and different questions, different programs and different practices are taken up … we’re going to have the same reproduction over and over again,” he said.

Peter Rosenthal, the lawyer who represented Coley’s family at the inquest into his death said, “one of the most important responsibilities of the professional standards unit is monitoring officers’ use of force,” and that “the most egregious misuses of force result in death.”

Very few police officers are ever involved in an on-duty death, he said. Shank, Rosenthal noted, has been involved in two.

“The optics are terrible.”

“I scratch my head when I see this unfolding because of the previous commitments to building relationships with … the Black community. We are concerned.”

LOUIS MARCH ANTI- GUN ADVOCATE