Policing inspector general announces province-wide corruption investigation

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The Inspector General of Policing of Ontario, Ryan Teschner, announced at a Monday press conference that he will be conducting an independent probe into police corruption throughout the province. Techner said he will be appointing an external person for the investigation so the person can remain focused on the task. He said it is common for corruption to spread to other police forces and it will launch a deep dive into all 45 of Ontario’s police services and their boards’ capabilities to, “prevent, detect, respond to, and fortify their organizations against corruption.” “Although this issue originated with the Toronto Police Service, we have since learned that other organizations may be impacted,” said Teschner. This comes after eight current and retired Toronto-area officers were charged in an investigation dubbed Project South. In total, the York regional police probe saw 27 individuals arrested. Teschner said he will appoint someone from outside his police watchdog organization, to conduct the probe independently, with the finished report and any directives made as a result, being made public. “We’re not looking at individual conduct,” said Teschner. “What we are looking at are the systems in place and whether those systems need to be strengthened.”