The union representing Toronto’s front-line cops has launched a publicity campaign as part of its efforts to fight the city’s plan to reduce the $1 billion police budget through attrition and restructuring.

The Toronto Police Association has launched a Facebook page titled ‘Stop the Toronto Police Cuts’ and has announced plans for nine telephone town halls this week, three of which have already taken place.

The campaign comes as the Toronto Police Services Board continues to hold public consultations on a report from the Transformational Task Force that recommends 24 cost cutting initiatives aimed at taming the TPS budget, including the elimination of 450 uniformed officers through attrition. The report also recommends merging or shutting down six police stations and implementing a three-year freeze on hiring and non-essential promotions.

“Toronto's police service has been steadily shrinking since cuts began in 2010. And City Hall plans to keep cutting police until 2019,” a message posted to the Facebook page Stop the Toronto Police Cuts reads. “Despite growing by 100,000 (people) per year, Toronto's police service is being cut – from 5,615 officers in 2010, to 5,235 this year. That's almost 400 fewer police. And City Hall plans to keep cutting.”

According to Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack, between 20,000 and 30,000 people have participated in the town halls that have taken place so far and tens of thousands of others have been invited to the town halls that are still to take place.

On the telephone town hall Wednesday night, McCormack, two retired Toronto cops and a criminologist discussed the impact that a reduction in front-line officers would have on public safety.

“When we have less officers out there it means less visibility and less officers to respond. It impacts public safety - I am concerned about that – and it impacts officer burnout and I am concerned about that,” McCormack told CP24 on Thursday. “Officers are doing nothing but reactive policing. There is not time for proactive policing and it is burning out officers out."

The proposed police budget for 2017 is just over a billion dollars ($1,002,700) which is two million dollars less than the 2016 police budget. The slight reduction comes after more than a decade of successive increases to the police budget, which stood at $752.4 million in 2006.

The 2017 police budget also includes a reduction in the number of deployed uniformed officers, going from 5,224 in 2016 to 5,072. The target for 2018 is 4,912 and the target for 2019 is 4,767.

Discussing the police budget with reporters Thursday morning, Mayor John Tory said that any cuts that are made won’t have an impact on public safety.

“Mr. McCormack has a job to do – he’s a union leader - I have a different job to do which is protect the overall interest of the entire city,” Tory said. “Nothing that we are going to do in the cause of reforming and modernizing policing will ever put public safety in jeopardy. Anybody who suggests otherwise is trying to mislead people.”

McCormack says he is worried about public safety

McCormack told CP24 that the current police response rate in Toronto is 15 minutes, which is considerably slower than the industry standard of seven to 10 minutes.

McCormack said he is concerned that a further reduction in uniformed officers will only exacerbate that problem.

“Yes I represent the police officers and am concerned about their well-being but also I live in this city. I am concerned about public safety,” he said.

For his part Tory said that the modernization of the Toronto Police Service is “important work” that he won’t apologize for.

“People can either sit down at the table and talk to us about how to do it because it has to be done or they can adopt a different approach and follow that kind of path,” Tory said. “I know what I have to do. I am the mayor and I have to keep the city safe but also modernize policing and make sure the budget is reasonable.”