A never-before-seen OPP report — 90 per cent redacted — is offering new insights into the fallout from a series of officer thefts that continue to affect Toronto drug prosecutions.
Vulnerabilities in Toronto police’s “dated” drug evidence storage system meant thefts by officers “may have occurred” but gone undetected, according to a never-before-seen report from the Ontario Provincial Police — the result of an investigation intoFindings of the confidential report were made public — albeit in a heavily redacted form — on Friday inside a downtown courtroom, where concerns about the security of Toronto police drug evidence have taken centre stage in an ongoing drug trial...
“The Toronto police took inadequate actions towards security during a period in 2020 and 2021, when it came to light that there were a wide variety of thefts from that locker system,” defence lawyer David Heath told the court Friday, summarizing arguments he’s making alongside lawyers Kabir Sharma and George Gray.
Unlike Censoni — who was charged by Toronto police and convicted of unlawful possession of fentanyl — Worden was never criminally charged, something former police chief James RamerShortly after Worden’s thefts were discovered, Toronto police asked the OPP to investigate the impact on criminal cases and identify weaknesses in the drug locker management system.
Evidence bags were “scattered on the floor,” processing tables contained fingerprint dust and “there was no indication of a dedicated area specifically used for packaging fentanyl, thereby increasing likelihood of contamination/exposure,” the report found. Those changes include the creation of an internal fail-safe system that flags when officers make multiple attempts to enter a locker managed by another cop; regular audits of the system; and the installation of security cameras in every locker, Da Silva said. At the time of the OPP review, just six of the city’s 17 police divisions had cameras.
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