Gold Bug Pocket
Toronto Police Service
History
Creation to 1859 reforms
The Toronto Police Service, was founded in 1834 when the city of Toronto was first created from the town of York. (Prior to that, local able-bodied male citizens were required to report for night duty as special constables for a fixed number of nights a year on the pain of fine or imprisonment in a system known as "watch and ward".)
The Toronto Police is one of the English-speaking world oldest modern municipal police departments; older than, for example, the legendary New York City Police Department which was formed in 1845 or the Boston Police Department which was established in 1839. The London Metropolitan Police of 1829 is generally recognized as the first modern municipal department. In 1835, Toronto retained five fulltime constables ratio of about one officer for every 1,850 citizens. Their daily pay was set at 5 shillings for day duty and 7 shillings, 6 pence, for night duty. In 1837 the constables annual pay was fixed at 75 per annum, a lucrative city position when compared to the mayor annual pay of 250 at the time.
Toronto constables circa 1880
From 1834 to 1859, the Toronto Police was a corrupt and notoriously political force with its constables loyal to the local aldermen who personally appointed police officers in their own wards for the duration of their incumbency. Toronto constables on numerous occasions suppressed opposition candidate meetings and took sides during bitter sectarian violence between Orange Order and Irish Catholic radical factions in the city. A provincial government report in 1841 described the Toronto Police as "formidable engines of oppression". Although constables were issued uniforms in 1837, one contemporary recalled that the Toronto Police was "without uniformity, except in one respecthey were uniformly slovenly." After an excessive outbreak of street violence involving Toronto Police misconduct, including an episode where constables brawled with Toronto's firemen in one incident, and stood by doing nothing in another incident while enraged firemen burned down a visiting circus when its clowns jumped a lineup at a local brothel, the entire Toronto Police force, along with its chief, were fired in 1859.
1859 to 1900
The new force was removed from Toronto City Council jurisdiction (except for the setting of the annual budget and manpower levels) and placed under the control of a provincially mandated Board of Police Commissioners. Under its new Chief, William Stratton Prince, a former infantry captain, standardized training, hiring practices and new strict rules of discipline and professional conduct were introduced. Today's Toronto Police Service directly traces its ethos, constitutional lineage and Police Commission regulatory structure to the 1859 reforms.
In the 19th century, the Toronto Police mostly focused on the suppression of rebellion in the cityarticularly during the Fenian threats of 1860 to 1870. The Toronto Police were probably Canada's first security intelligence agency when they established a network of spies and informants throughout Canada West in 1864 to combat US Army recruiting agents attempting to induce British Army soldiers stationed in Canada to desert to serve in the Union Army in the Civil War. The Toronto Police operatives later turned to spying on the activities of the Fenians and filed reports to the Chief from as far as Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago and New York City. When in December 1864, the Canada West secret frontier police was established under Stipendiary Magistrate Gilbert McMicken, some of the Toronto Police agents were reassigned to this new agency.
In 1863, the Toronto Police were also used as "Indian fighters" during the Manitoulin Island Incident when some fifty natives armed with knives forced the fishery inspector William Gibbard and a fishery operation to withdraw from unceded tribal lands on Lake Huron. Thirteen armed Toronto police officers, along with constables from Barrie, were dispatched to Manitoulin Island to assist the government in retaking the fishery operation, but were forced back when the natives advanced now armed with rifles. The police withdrew but were later reinforced and eventually arrested the entire band but not before William Gibbard was killed by unknown parties. (Sidney L. Harring White Man's Law: Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence Toronto: Osgood Society-University of Toronto Press, 1998. pp. 152-153)
In the 1870s, as the Fenian threat began to gradually wane and the Victorian moral reform movement gained momentum, Toronto police primarily functioned in the role of "urban missionaries" whose function it was to regulate unruly and immoral behaviour among the "lower classes". They were almost entirely focused on arresting drunks, prostitutes, disorderlies, and violators of Toronto ultra-strict Sunday "blue law".
In the days before public social services, the force functioned as a social services mega-agency. Prior the creation of the Toronto Humane Society in 1887 and the Children Aid Society in 1891, the police oversaw animal and child welfare, including the enforcement of child support payments. They operated the city's ambulance service and acted as the Board of Health. Police stations at the time were designed with space for the housing of homeless, as no other public agency in Toronto dealt with this problem. Shortly before the Great Depression, in 1925, the Toronto Police housed 16,500 homeless people that year.
Plainclothes officers circa 1919
The Toronto Police regulated street-level business: cab drivers, street vendors, corner grocers, tradesmen, rag men, junk dealers, laundry operators. Under public order provisions, the Toronto Police was responsible for the licensing and regulation of dance halls, pool halls, theatres, and later movie houses. It was responsible for censoring the content of not only theatrical performances and movies, but of all literature in the city ranging from books and magazines to posters and advertising.
The Toronto Police also suppressed labour movements which were perceived as anarchist threats. The establishment of the mounted unit is directly related to the four-month Toronto streetcar strike of 1886, when authorities called on the Governor General's Horse Guard Regiment to assist in suppressing the strike.
20th century
A yellow former Metro Toronto Police car makes an appearance during a parade.
As for serious criminal investigations, the Toronto Police frequently (but not always) contracted with private investigators from the Pinkerton Detective Agency until the 20th century when it developed its own internal investigation and intelligence capacity.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Toronto Police under Chief Dennis "Deny" Draper, a retired Brigadier General and former Conservative candidate, returned to its function as an agency to suppress political dissent. Its notorious "Red Squad" brutally dispersed demonstrations by labour unions and by unemployed and homeless people during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Suspicious of "foreigners", the police lobbied the city of Toronto to pass legislation banning public speeches in languages other than English, curtailing union organization among Toronto's vast immigrant populations working in sweat shops.
After several scandals, including a call by Chief Draper to have reporters "shot" and his being arrested driving drunk, the city appointed in 1948 a new Police Chief from its own ranks for the first time in the department's history: John Chisholm, a very able senior police inspector. In 1955, the Metropolitan Toronto Board of Police Commissioners was formed in preparation for the amalgamation of the 13 police forces in the municipality Metropolitan Toronto into a unified police force with Chisholm as chief of the unified force. Unfortunately Chisholm was not up to the politics of the Chief's office, especially in facing off with Fred "Big Daddy" Gardiner who engineered almost single-handedly the formation of Metropolitan Toronto in the 1950s. As the Toronto City Police absorbed the surrounding police departments and grew in size and complexity, Chisholm found himself unable to manage the huge agency and its Byzantine politics. In 1958, after a number of conflicts with Gardiner and members of the newly expanded Metropolitan Toronto Board of Police Commissioners, Chief Chisholm drove to High Park on the city's west end, parked his car and committed suicide with his service revolver. The late Staff Superintendent Jack Webster, one of the officers who arrived at the scene of the Chief's death and who would upon his retirement in the 1990s become the Force Historian at the Toronto Police Museum, would later write, "Suicide is a constant partner in every police car."
With the creation of Metro Toronto in 1954, the Toronto Police was eventually merged on January 1, 1957, with the other municipal forces to form the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force:
Former Police Force
Current Community
Field
Division(s)
Scarborough Police Department
Scarborough
Area
41, 42, 43
Etobicoke Police Department
Etobicoke
Area
22, 23
North York Police Department
North York
Area; parts of Central
31, 32, 33; parts of 12, 13, 53
East York Police Department
East York
Central
54
Mimico Police Department
Etobicoke (Mimico)
Area
22
Weston Police Department
York (Weston, Ontario)
Area and Central
12, 31
Forest Hill Police Department
Toronto (Forest Hill, Ontario)
Central
53
Town of Leaside Police Department
East York (Leaside, Ontario)
Central
53, 54
York Township Police Department
York
Central
13
New Toronto Police Department
Etobicoke (New Toronto, Ontario)
Area
22
Swansea Police Department
Toronto (Swansea, Ontario)
Central
11
Long Branch Police Department
Etobicoke (Long Branch, Ontario)
Area
22
In November 1995, the agency was renamed the Metropolitan Toronto Police Service which in turn, in 1998, became the Toronto Police Service after the amalgamation of the former municipalities of metropolitan Toronto.
21st century
ETF Vehicle on Queen Street during an attempted bank robbery and bomb scare
A Toronto Police marine patrol at the Canadian National Exhibition.
Today, the Toronto Police Service is responsible for overall local police service in Toronto and works with the other emergency services (Toronto EMS (TEMS) and Toronto Fire Services (TFS)) and other police forces in the GTA including:
York Regional Police
Peel Regional Police
Durham Regional Police Service
Ontario Provincial Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
For most of 2005, the police union and the Toronto Police Services Board (the civilian governing body) were involved in lengthy contract negotiations. The rank and file had been without a contract since the end of 2004, and conducted a work-to-rule campaign in the fall of 2005. The police force is an essential public service and are legally prohibited from striking.
Controversies and allegations of misconduct
A mandatory Coroner's Inquest took place into the police killing of 17-year-old Jeffrey Reodica. Although accounts differ, it is generally accepted that Reodica was part of a group of Filipino teenagers pursuing a group of white teenagers on May 21, 2004, following altercations between the two groups. Plainclothes Toronto police officer Det.-Const. Dan Belanger and his partner Det. Allen Love were in the process of arresting Reodica when he was shot by the officers, the teen died in hospital three days later. Belanger and his partner, Det. Allen Love, were eventually cleared by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) who accepted their story that Reodica lunged at them with a knife.
In response to the recommendations of the Coroner's Inquest jury, Chief Blair recommended that all plainclothes police officers be issued arm bands and raid jackets bearing the word 'Police' in an effort to increase their visibility in critical situations. Unmarked cars, which are already equipped with a plug-in police light, will also be supplied with additional emergency equipment, including a siren package. The proposals will be phased in over three years beginning in 2008. Undercover officers will also have to wear, carry or have access to standard police use-of-force options such as pepper spray and batons.
In 2004, eight people were shot by Toronto Police, and six of them died from their wounds. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigated each shooting, but found all of them to be justified.
In 2005, the police force was faced with a spike in shootings across Toronto and increased concern among residents. Police Chief William Blair and Mayor David Miller asked for additional resources and asked for diligence from residents to contend with this issue. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty promised to work with Toronto to fight crime.
In July 2007, Toronto Police were involved in an international incident in which their members pepper-sprayed, tasered, and handcuffed members of the Chilean national soccer team in an attempt to keep control of crowds after their semi-final match in the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup. A police spokesman explained on CBC Radio on the programme Here and Now that police took action against individual members of the Chilean team when they "displayed aggressive behaviour" by vandalizing a bus and arguing with fans. The actions of the police were criticised by the TV and print media in Chile, and initially also in Canada, but following a news conference and more detailed description of behaviour by the Chilean team the criticism (outside of Chile) was withdrawn. FIFA president Sepp Blatter later apologized to the Toronto mayor for the incident, and instigated disciplinary action against the officials and players of the Chilean team.
Funding
As a division of the municipal government of Toronto, the Toronto Police Service's annual funding level is established by a vote of the Toronto City Council in favour of the year's proposed budget. Provided below are historical gross and net funding levels of the TPS as a part of the city's operating budgets.
Toronto Police Service funding as per municipal operating budgets
Year
Gross Amount
% of Year's Gross Budget
Net Amount
% of Year's Net Budget
1999
$540,978,000
9.7%
$522,900,000
20.3%
2004
$707,573,000
10.6%
$679,112,000
23.3%
Chiefs of Police
The chief of police is the highest-ranking officer of the Toronto Police Service (until the 1960s the position was known as chief constable). Most chiefs have been chosen amongst the ranks of Toronto force and promoted from the ranks of deputy chief.
Toronto Police Department
William Higgins 1834
George Kingsmill 1835
James Stitt 1836
George Kingsmill 1837-1846
George Allen 1847-1852
Samuel Sherwood 1852-1858
William Stratton Prince 1859-1873
Frank C. Draper 1874-1886
H.J. Grasett 1886-1920
Samuel J. Dickson 1920-1928
Dennis Draper 1928-1946
John Chisholm 1946-1956
Metro Toronto Police (up to 1995), Metro Toronto Police Service (up to 1998) and Toronto Police Service (1998 onwards)
John Chisholm 1957-1958 (died 1958 from suicide)
James Page Mackey 1958-1970 (died 2009)
Harold Adamson 1970-1980 (died 2001)
Jack W. Ackroyd 1980-1984 (died 1992)
Jack Marks 1984-1989 (died 2007)
William J. McCormack 1989-1995
David Boothby 1995-2000
Julian Fantino 2000-2005
Mike Boyd 2005
Bill Blair 2005-present
The Special Investigations Unit
The actions of the Toronto Police are examined by the Special Investigations Unit, a civilian agency responsible for investigating circumstances involving police and civilians that have resulted in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault. The SIU is dedicated to maintaining one law, ensuring equal justice before the law among both the police and the public. They assure that the criminal law is applied appropriately to police conduct, as determined through independent investigations, increasing public confidence in the police services. Complaints involving police conduct that do not result in a serious injury or death must be referred to the appropriate police service or to another oversight agency, such as the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services.
Operations
Toronto Police Headquarters
Toronto Police Headquarters is on College Street near Bay Street in the downtown area. The former HQ at Jarvis Street was turned into a museum (and since re-located to current HQ). The current site was once home to the Toronto YMCA. The current sign in over the main entrance still reads "Metropolitan Toronto Police Headquarters" and still has the seal of Metropolitan Toronto, and since 2007 has the current Toronto Police Service crest.
The Toronto Police Service is divided into two field areas and 17 divisions (police stations or precincts):
Central Field Command encompasses the central portion of the city of Toronto
11 Division, 209 Mavety St.
12 Division, 200 Trethewey Dr.
13 Division, 1435 Eglinton Av. W.
14 Division, 150 Harrison St.
51 Division, 51 Parliament St.
52 Division, 255 Dundas St. W.
53 Division, 75 Eglinton Av. W.
54 Division, 41 Cranfield Rd.
55 Division, 101 Coxwell Avenue.
Toronto Police 41 Division in Scarborough.
Area Command encompasses the former cities of North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke. It also includes portions of the cities of Toronto and York, and the Borough of East York (excluding Leaside).
22 Division, 3699 Bloor St. W
23 Division, 5230 Finch Ave. West
31 Division, 40 Norfinch Dr.
32 Division, 30 Ellerslie Av.
33 Division, 50 Upjohn Rd.
41 Division, 2222 Eglinton Av. E.
42 Division, 242 Milner Av. E.
43 Division 4331 Lawrence Ave. E near Morningside Avenue
Note: Public Safety Unit is located at 4610 Finch Avenue East next to the former Charles O. Bick Police College
Support units in the Toronto Police Service consists of:
Specialized Operations Command
Detective Services, 40 College St.
Forensic Investigation Service, 2050 Jane Street. (FIS)
Homicide Squad, 40 College St.
Provincial ROPE Squad, 40 College St.
Drug Squad, 40 College St. - replaced Toronto Police Service's Central Field Command Drug Squad from the 1990s
Organized Crime Enforcement , 40 College St.
Fraud Squad, 40 College St.
Hold-Up Squad, 40 College St.
Intelligence Services, 40 College St.
Sex Crimes Unit, 40 College St.
Guns and Gangs Unit
replaced the Asian Crime Unit, Hate Crimes Unit
Toronto Anti-Violence Initiative Strategy (TAVIS)
Toronto Police Emergency Task Force officers on a call.
Operational Services
Communications Services, 40 College St.
911 Operations Centre, 703 Don Mills Rd.
Court Services, 40 College St.
Prisoner Transportation Unit, 9 Hanna Avenue.
Emergency Task Force, 300 Lesmill Rd.
Marine, 259 Queen's Quay W.
Mounted and Police Dog Services, 44 Beechwood Drive (1989) - Mounted Drill Unit
25 horses with 45 officers
21 officers with 17 general dogs, 4 drug dogs and 1 explosives detector dog
Parking Enforcement, 1500 Don Mills Road.
Public Safety and Emergency Management, 4610 Finch Avenue East
Traffic Services, 9 Hanna Avenue.
Transit Unit, Various TTC Locations. Supplements and assists Special Constables of the TTC Special Constable Services
Community Mobilization Unit
Auxiliary, Volunteer and Rover Program
Youth Programs
Empowered Student Partnership
Toronto Recreational Outreach Outtripping Program (TROOP)
Public Education and Crime Eradication (PEACE) project
Policing on most 400-series highways (like King's Highways 401, 400, 427, 404) are in the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police. Toronto Police Traffic Services is responsible for patrolling on local highways (Allen Road, Don Valley Parkway, F.G. Gardiner Expressway and the Toronto section of Highway 409).
Workforce
The Toronto Police Service has approximately 5,710 uniformed officers and 2,500 civilian employees. Its officers are among the best paid in Canada. In October 2008, the Toronto Police Service was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.
Fleet
Police cars, also known as police cruisers are the standard equipment used by Toronto Police officers for transportation. The vehicles are numbered in regards to their division and car number. For example, 3322 represents that the vehicle is from 33 Division, and the following 22 symbolizes that the car works in Zone 2 for that Division and it is car number 2 for that zone. e.g. 5421 would be 54 Division, zone 2, car 1.
Other fleet numbering patterns include:
6XXX - Traffic Services/Transit Unit
TAVX - Toronto Anti-Violence Initiative Strategy (TAVIS)
ETFXX - Emergency Task Force
MUXX - Marine Unit
PSUXX - Public Safety Unit
PKEXX - Parking Enforcement
CRTXX - Court Services
BCUXX - Bail Compliance Unit
SROXX - School Resource Officer
RMSXX - Records Management Services/Courier
PDSXX - Police Dog Services
FISXX - Forensic Identification Services
MTDXX - Mounted Unit
COMDX - Command Post vehicle
CFCX - Central Field Command (mobile command post vehicles)
VSUXX - Video Services Unit
MotorcyclesProduct list and details
Product list and details
Make/Model
Type
Status
Origin
Chevrolet Camaro
Highway Unit
Retired
United States
Chevrolet Caprice
General police vehicle
Retired
United States
Chevrolet Cavalier
Parking Enforcement, Document Services Section
Mexico United States
Chevrolet Impala
General police vehicle
retired
Canada
Chevrolet Malibu (2001-2005)
Community Sweeper Unit car
United States
Chevrolet Malibu (2006)
Parking Enforcement Unit
United States
Dodge Charger
(marked) General police vehicle, Traffic Services, Community Sweeper Unit
Canada
Dodge Neon
Parking Enforcement, Document Services Section
United States
Smart fortwo
Parking Enforcement car
Germany
Ford Crown Victoria
(marked) - General police vehicle, Traffic Services, Community Sweeper Unit
Canada
Ford Crown Victoria- (black/blue stripe, grey/grey stripe)
Stealth Police Cruiser.
Canada
Ford Focus
Parking Enforcement car
United States
Ford Taurus
(Highway Patrol)
retired
United States
Plymouth Caravelle
General police vehicle
retired
United States
Volkswagen New Beetle
Safety Bug car
Mexico
Honda Civic/Civic Hybrid
Parking Enforcement car
Canada
Make/Model
Type
Status
Origin
BMW K1 (K75RT)
Motorcycle
Germany
Harley Davidson FLHTP
motorcycle
United States
Boats
Product list and details
Unit #
Make
Type
Notes
Marine Unit 1
Hyke Industry
Dive Platform & Command Vessel marine boat with Volvo Penta Turbo Chargd 350 hp (260 kW) engines
Marine Unit 2
VIP Boat - Mohogany & Oak Classic Patrol Boat
Marine Unit 3
Long Range Search and Rescue Vessel with Re-Righting Capabilities
Marine Unit 4
Hyke
patrol boat
Marine Unit 5
Hyke
wooden motor boat - patrol boat
Marine Unit 6
Hyke
patrol boat
Marine Unit 7
Hyke
patrol boat
SRV1
service vessel
Marine Unit 9-11
Zodiac
30-foot (9.1 m) Zodiac Rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIBs) with twin 300 horsepower (220 kW) four-stroke motors
Marine Unit 12
fan boat
Marine Unit 8
Zodiac
28-foot (8.5 m) Zodiac with a Covered Wheelhouse, Twin Turbo-Disel Jet Drive Engines
1 "HUSKY"
airboat
used for operating over ice
MU00
Seadoo GTX-4
personal watercraft
Support vehicles
Product list and details
Make/Model
Type
Status
Origin
Chevrolet Express
van - Commercial Vehicle Enforcement, Collision Reconstruction
United States
GMC Savanna
vans - Radio Services and Court Services
United States
GMC C series light truck
ETF
United States
Chevrolet Suburban
SUV - ETF, Marine Unit, Police Dog Service, Public Safety Unit, Radio Services
United States
Ford F350
pickup truck with horses trailer - Mounted Unit
United States
Armet Armoured Vehicles Incorporated/Ford Trooper - using F-550 chassis
tactical vehicle - ETF
United States/ Canada
Ford Van
Explosive Disposal Unit, Forensic Identification Service
United States
Ford F-series or GMC Vandura trucks
Prisoner Transportation Services Court Wagons
Canada
Freightliner Trucks FL mobile
mobile command unit
United States
Ford F-series truck chassis
tow truck
United States
Ford Van
van RIDE
United States
GMC Safari
SUV Parking Enforcement
United States
Jeep Cherokee
SUV
United States
Northrop Grumman Remotec Andros MK V1A and Andros F6B
bomb unit robots
United States
General Motors Diesel Division T6H -5307 series
Metro Police Auxiliary AUX1 and AUX 2 bus - ex-Toronto Transit Commission 7960
Canada
Motor Coach Industries MCI 102A
2 recruitmen buses
Canada
Motor Coach Industries MCI-9
bus
Canada
Orion Bus Industries Orion I
bus
Canada
Community Relations trailer - community donated
Canada
Bikes
Product list and details
Make/Model
Type
Status
Origin
Norco Bicycles Cross Country
mountain bikes
Canada
Aquila Scandium
mountain bikes - Community Action Policing
Specialized operations
Members of the Toronto Police mounted unit
Emergency Task Force
Main article: Emergency Task Force (TPS)
The Emergency Task Force (ETF) is the tactical unit of the Toronto Police Service. It is mandated to deal with high-risk situations like gun calls, hostage taking, barricaded persons, emotionally disturbed persons, high risk arrests and warrant service, and protection details. The unit was created in 1965. An earlier non-SWAT Riot and Emergency Squad emerged in 1961. Part of its role is now undertaken by the ETF, Public Safety and Emergency Management and the Mounted Unit.
Mounted unit
The horse unit was formed in 1886 to provide crowd control and now stationed at the Horse Palace at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). The unit has been based at Casa Loma, Toronto Zoo, Sunnybrook Stables and at various division in Scarborough, Ontario, and North York, Ontario. The unit has a strength of 27 horses and 40 officers.
Police horses Honest Ed and Spencer were invited to the swearing in of United States President Barack Obama by Michigan Multi- Jurisdictional Mounted Police Drill Team and Color Guard.
Horses
Honest Ed (2004); named for Ed Mirvish
Samson
Lady
General
Harry
Keith
Dragoon
Spencer
Winston
Royal
Dundas; named after Dundas Street
Lincoln; named after former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Lincoln Alexander
Boot ; named after former chief David Boothby
Simcoe
Blue Moon
Sabre
Elvis; named for Mount Unit officer killed on duty
Dorothy
Thor
Stuart
Champ
Viscount
Toby
Duke
Champ
Trooper
Blue Moon
Charger
Juno Beach
Major
Justice
Horses killed while on duty:
Brigadier (born 1998 near Listowel, Ontario) - 2006 - motor vehicle collision
Lancer - 2002 - motor vehicle collision
Police dog services
The Toronto Police K-9 unit was created in 1989 and is deployed to search for suspects, missing persons and other duties:
The service has 17 general purpose dogs. Nero and Rony are dogs attached to this unit. There are 4 drug enforcement dogs and 1 explosives detector dog (Mic).
21 officers and dogs are assigned to this unit and based at 44 Beechwood Drive in East York, Ontario.
Court Services
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In the early 1980s, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) initiated the hiring of civilian personnel to fill the position of Court Officer. Court Officers are primarily responsible for the safety and security of the public within Toronto's busy court locations, as well as the transportation, security, and safety of over 400 prisoners attending court each day. Prior to 1980 this function was performed by uniformed Police Officers under the supervision of a Police Sergeant at each court location. In 1980 the first class of twenty civilian employees were appointed by the Police Services Board to replace the uniformed Police Officers at the court locations. These Court Officers were sworn in as Special Constables, pursuant to the provisions of the Police Services Act, which conferred onto them the powers of Police Officers for the performance of their duties.
As the city policing needs expanded, so did the continued civilianization of Court Services. In 1984 the first civilian supervisors were trained to replace the Police Sergeants. These supervisors reported to a Detective Sergeant who was responsible for managing all the TPS personnel assigned to a particular court location.
In the mid 1980, the Summons Bureau became a part of Court Services and the Civilian Summons Servers and support staff took on an expanded role under the newly created Document Services Section. The title Summons Server was changed to Document Server to reflect the expanded responsibilities. Document Servers are responsible for serving summonses, subpoenas and other court documents on individuals required to attend Toronto courts.
Court Services later took on the responsibility of overseeing the Matrons, now referred to as Custodial Officers, which is a small but dedicated group of employees tasked with managing female prisoners at a central location.
By 1990 Court Officers had taken over the responsibility of transporting prisoners in specialized wagons between the court locations, divisions and correctional facilities; a task previously performed only by uniformed Police Officers. This centralized service became known as the Prisoner Transportation Section. By 1995 Court Services promoted its first civilian to the position of Location Administrator, replacing the Detective Sergeants who were formerly in charge of the court locations. Today all sections within Court Services are managed by civilian Location Administrators. These Location Administrators report to one of two Staff Inspectors, who in turn report to the Superintendent of Court Services.
The role of the Special Constable within Court Services has developed significantly beyond its original mandate. As new laws were introduced by Parliament, and the City law enforcement needs became increasingly complex, Court Services evolved to assist the TPS in meeting those demands.
Court Services now employs over 700 of the Service 2500 civilian employees. It comprises several subunits including Prisoner Transportation, Document Services, the Training Section, and the Computer Assisted Scheduling of Courts (CASC). The role of the Special Constables within these subunits includes the service of legal documents; the execution of warrants; the collection DNA samples from convicted offenders; assisting the TPS Public Order Unit in maintaining order during public demonstrations; and being involved in all aspects of the Court Officer hiring and training process. In addition, members of Court Service are often utilized by the TPS for other specialized community outreach initiatives, such as the TPS Aboriginal Peacekeeping Unit; the TPS United Way fund raising initiative; and the Toronto Drug Treatment Court.
The growth in size of the Court Services Unit necessitated the creation of several specialized functions. A centralized Risk Management Section was created, tasked with the responsibility of investigating any complaints and disciplinary issues involving Court Services personnel. It is staffed by a team of detectives, under the supervision of a Detective Sergeant. The position of Crown Police Liaison Officer was also created allowing for a Detective Sergeant at each criminal court location who is dedicated to assisting the Crown Office with the processing of court cases.
As the City demand for additional court rooms increases, so does the responsibility of Court Services. There are currently 16 court locations across Toronto, with a total of 257 court rooms. In 2008 approximately 106,000 in-custody accused appeared in these court rooms. Also in that year, the Prisoner Transportation Section transported approximately 186,000 prisoners between police divisions and to and from detention centres. This required a professional staff of clerks, Police Officers and Special Constables, all working collaboratively in an impressive demonstration of excellence through people and partnerships.
Toronto Parking Enforcement
Parking enforcement on all roads and public property are the responsibility of Toronto Police.
Uniforms
TPE officers are provincial offences officers able to issue parking tickets under part II of the Ontario Provincial Offences Act. They do not carry any use of force items and are unarmed, but are issued kevlar vests for safety. They are peace officers pursuant to section 15 of the Police Services Act of Ontario for the purpose of enforcing Municipal By-Laws.
Their uniform consists of a blue shirt, black cargo pants with blue stripe, a black vest and a cap with blue stripe. Boots are similar to front line TPS officers. In winter months TPE officers have a blue jacket with reflective trim. Patches on the jackets and shirts are similar to the TPS, but with a white back ground the blue wording "Parking Enforcement".
Fleet
Their vehicles have the same paint scheme as the older TPS squad cars, but they are label with Parking Enforcement' and PKE or "PKW".
Toronto School Crossing Guards
Adult crossing guards at various intersections and crosswalks are employed and paid by the TPS. They are under charge by various Division across the city.
Marine unit
TPS is one of several police forces along Lake Ontario with a marine unit.
TPS has a fleet of 15 boats based along marine unit stations in south Etobicoke (Humber Bay West Park), Toronto Harbour and Scarborough (Bluffer's Park):
TPS Marine unit works in conjunction with:
Canadian Forces Search and Rescue unit at CFB Trenton
Peel Regional Police Marine Unit
Durham Regional Police Marine Unit
Niagara Regional Police Service Marine Unit
Halton Regional Police Marine Unit
Hamilton Police Service (Ontario) Marine Unit
Uniforms
Besides wearing the reflective vest, guards are supplied with a police issue jacket. The jackets have a patch similar to the TPS, but it has a white background and identification as school crossing guards. A winter hat similar to the Ushanka are worn in cold weather.
Sidearms and weapons
Glock 22 Large frame .40 - Regular uniformed officers
Glock 23 Compact frame .40 - Detectives
Glock 17 Large frame 9 mm - Emergency Task Force (TPS)
Glock 19 Compact frame 9 mm - Emergency Task Force (TPS)
Taser - Regular uniformed supervisors and specialized units
Pepper spray (OC Spray) - Regular uniformed officers
TPS formerly used Smith & Wesson prior to switching over to the Glock.
Weapons used by the ETF include:
MP5A3 9 mm submachine gun
Remington 700 bolt-action sniper rifle
Remington 870 shotgun (Can be issued to Regular Uniformed Officers)
Mossberg M500 shotgun (Can be issued to Regular Uniformed Officers)
Diemaco C8 carbine rifle (Can also be employed by member's of PSU when doing Court Security)
Taser International M18 taser
Taser International X26 taser
Pepper spray (OC Spray)
Tear gas (CS Gas)
Rubber bullets or bean bags rounds
ARWEN 37 37 mm riot gun (and AR-1 plastic baton rounds, may also be available to crowd/riot control officers)
Uniform
Auxiliary Police.
Front line officers wear dark navy blue shirts, cargo pants (with red stripe) and boots. Winter jackets are either dark navy blue jacket design Eisenhower style, single breasted front closing, 2 patch type breast pockets, shoulder straps, gold buttons, or yellow windbreaker style with the word POLICE in reflective silver and black at the back (Generally worn by the bicycle police). All ranks shall wear dark navy blue clip on ties when wearing long-sleeve uniforms.
Auxiliary officers (shown to the right) wear light blue shirts, with the badging of auxiliary on the bottom of the crest. Originally front line officer also wore light blue shirts but changed to the current navy blue shirts in the Fall of 2000.
Hats can be styled after baseball caps, combination caps,or fur trim hats for winter. Motorcycle units have white helmets. Black or reflective yellow gloves are also provided to officers with Traffic Services. Front line officers usually wear combination caps since that is the location of their badge.
As is the case with all Ontario Law Enforcement Officers, uniformed officers wear name tags. They are in the style of "A. Example" where the first letter of the first name is written and the last name next to it. Name tags are usually stitched on with white stitching on a black background, but they also have pin-styled with black lettering on a gold plate.
Senior officers wear white shirts and a black dress jacket.
Logo
The components of the TPS logo is similar to the old Metro Toronto Police logo less the name change:
winged wheels of industry on the top part of the shield
crown commemorating the coronation year of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953
two books for education
Caduceus - Roman god of commerce
chevron for housing
beaver from the city of Toronto logo
Ranks
Rank epaulettes
The rank insignia of the Toronto Police Service is similar to that used by police services elsewhere in Canada and in the United Kingdom, except that the usual "pips" are replaced by maple leaves.
Commanding officers
Besides the Chief of Police, the other command officers are the Deputy Chiefs. They head the command units:
Divisional Policing - Kim Derry (current)
Executive - Peter Sloly (current)
Human Resources - Keith Forde (current)
Specialized Policing - Anthony Warr (current)
The Chief Administrative Officer is a civilian post, currently held by Tony Veneziano.
Police senior officers
The day-to-day and regional operations are commanded by senior officers:
Staff Superintendent
Superintendent
Staff Inspector
Inspector
Investigative non-commissioned officers
Investigations are divided into crimes against persons and crimes against property. These investigations are conducted by:
Detective Sergeant
Detective
Detective Constable
Police officers
Staff Sergeant
Sergeant
Constable - first class, second class, third class, fourth class
Sworn members
Special Constable - Court Officers, Prisoner Transportation officers, Document Servers, Custodial Officers
Ranks
Locational Administrator
Shift Supervisor
Supervisor
Officer
Unsworn members
Cadet
Rover
Parking Enforcement Officer
Station Duty Officers
Communicator Operators
Training
New and current officers of the Toronto Police Service train at the Toronto Police College on Birmingham east of Islington. The initial training is 2 weeks, followed by 12 weeks at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer, Ontario and then 6 weeks of final training at Toronto Police College. Charles O. Bick College was closed in July 2009.
Emergency Services
TPS is part of Toronto's Emergency Services and works along side with:
Toronto Fire Services
Toronto EMS
Heavy Urban Search and Rescue
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Toronto Police Service
Auxiliary Constable
Emergency Task Force
History of crime in Toronto
TTC Special Constable Services
Police Recruitment Canada
References
^ HISTORY OF THE TORONTO POLICE PART 4: 1875 - 1920
^ Police killed unarmed teen, family says
^ Jeffrey Michael Reodica Inquest Jury Recommendations, Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario
^ Toronto Police Services Board, Minutes of the Meeting of April 26, 2007, pages 85-90
^ Chilean soccer team involved in melee with police
^ La Nacion.cl
^ FIFA vows action after U-20 brawl
^ Torontoist: Lazy Avec Le "Metro"
^ a b Toronto Police Service. "Toronto Police Division Boundaries and Addresses". http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/uniform.php.
^ http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/communications/selection.php
^ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 Greater Toronto's Top Employers Competition". http://www.eluta.ca/top-employer-toronto-police-service.
^
^ "Toronto police duo saddles up for Obama". Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/article/572006--toronto-police-duo-saddles-up-for-obama. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
External links
Toronto Police Official Site
Toronto Police Services Board
Toronto Police History
Toronto Police history 2
22 Division Toronto Police Service Rovers
Inquest into Jeffrey Reodica shooting begins
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About the Author
I am China Crafts Suppliers writer, reports some information about cruise patrol , aluminum v hull.
Teleteria founder Jay Servidio gets written up in front page article on the NY Press
Jay Servidio is a ringer for Matthew Broderick. Behind the sleepy eyes, under the puffy part, the fecund mind of a Ferris Bueller: "Listen, if more parents were at home running adult websites, maybe their children's tension needs would be met. Maybe these Santee-Columbine shootings wouldn't be happening."
In the driving rain. Polo buttondown. Pleated khakis and soaked suede Timberland loafers. Golf umbrella fairing the gale.
"But that's just a thought. What I tell all my students is, ‘You're not–n-o-t, not–gonna make a killing in this business.' These guys who say they make a million bucks every time they sneeze, they're full of shit. Seventy-five thousand in your first year? That's doable. But you'll have to grab me like a rabbi. You'll have to grab me like a rabbi and trust me to show you the ropes."
On 34th St., an umbrella graveyard. Spines and tatters curling at our shins.
"My students don't make any money for the first two to three months. It's all a process. But then you get your first check for $500 and you're like, ‘Oops I crapped my pants.' From that point on it's like a drug. Today you're doing five vials of crack. Tomorrow you're doing 10. It's the same thing. More. More. Grow! Grow! Grow!"
On tv, through a ground-floor window of the Empire State Bldg., the Nasdaq keels over, vomits 94 points. Inside a poor yutz jabs his half-smoked White Owl into his beer. A new low. The weather, the stock market–for many, the worst night in memory.
Half a block away 24 students await their man outside Source of Life, where Learning Annex and Seminar Center classes are held. A wilting, eager knot of black, white, Hispanic, Indian and Korean cityfolk. In their early 20s, their 40s, their late 50s, a third of them women. They are Mom 'n' Pop. It's nasty as hell outside and they're here to grab the Rabbi.
But Really. Why bother with a dotcommer? The very word draws thoughts of smug vulgarians. Why, on so foul a night, blow $35 to listen to one of them? Because, say Mom 'n' Pop, Jay Servidio can stuff real dollars into our afflicted, middle-class pockets.
It's axiomatic at this point: Adult entertainment is the only "content" people consistently purchase on the Internet. We all know how porn has revolutionized online billing, spurred on live, interactive digital video, streaming video, Internet video on demand, server push, Internet telephony, media players and so on. We've identified the Moloch of our collective lust as the driving force behind $1.5 billion of annual online commerce. In these poor, foul-spoken days Mom 'n' Pop could use an additional revenue stream.
So they're here to wring some profit from axiom. The question is, is Jay Servidio really their Rabbi?
A weak signal, from his Mercedes S500 bolting toward New Canaan:
"Can't talk long, going to the salon for a facial."
"So what's your pitch?"
"Did I mention I work out five nights a week?"
"Right."
"I'm fighting in a full-contact karate tournament next month up in Toronto. You should come check out my dojo in Manhattan."
And then we're cut off. He calls back.
"I just got American Psycho on DVD. Have you seen that movie, dude? It's awesome."
"The pitch, already."
"Simple. Who couldn't use a little extra money every month? Pay down debts, cover rent. Build a savings account."
"A savings what?"
"Exactly. Nobody saves these days. The people who come to me–teachers, policemen, housewives, blue-collar workers–most of them want to put some money away for their kid's education, pay some bills, take a vacation once in a while. They're not looking to quit their jobs or anything."
"So what do you do for them?"
"I hold their hands and kick their asses till they start making money."
"How much do they make?"
"Anywhere from four thousand to sixty-thousand a month, net."
"Bullshit!"
"I'm not lying."
"Can I see your tax returns?"
"No can do."
"Enjoy the facial, friend."
The signal is lost.
A day later, inside a sparsely furnished meatpacking district floor-through, Magdalia, owner of three "boutique bondage" websites, speaks about her avocation.
"It's like the chutney business my Great-Aunt Suzie used to run." Said with a chuckle. "Sooz wasn't mining gold or anything, but she had some fun with it, made a little mad money."
This one is bouncy-cute. She says "mad" with these bugged-out eyes. A self-described "full-time cog" in the book publishing industry, Magdalia say she's been grossing an additional five grand a month over the last half year. An offer to mention her URL is declined. "We're choosy. We turn down a lot of potential customers. Don't need the hassle."
"That part of the whole dominance bit?"
Her left hand disappears behind her razor-sharp bob, her right pets a riding crop cradled in the bevel of her coffee table. "Well, we've been at this a while." Three years to be exact. "Our membership fee is almost $50. It's our little world and we get to say who lives in it. But we do offer added value to our clients."
"How's that?"
"We hold ‘events.'" Bug eyes again. "That keeps them coming back."
Giggling, she clicks on a photo from a recent event. The client with the clothespins on his nads seems pleased with the added value.
"You do business with Jay Servidio?"
"No, but I've heard of him. He's a rock star on the trade show circuit. Knows everyone. Our business is a little less, uh, mass, if you follow."
"What do you do with your profits?"
"Some of it goes back into the site. The rest of it helps pay food and rent. Book publishing pays shit, you know."
"Is it really possible to make, say, $5000 a month without quitting your job?"
"Absolutely! Sex is recession-proof. But I'm speaking for myself. I mean, I keep costs down. I have my own Unix right here [procured on eBay]. And I produce my content locally, instead of buying it from others."
"Locally?"
"That brick wall you're leaning on?"
"Yeah?"
"That is the dungeon."
Dateline: Winnipeg. On the flip side of the screen. My contact is O'Reilly, a short, crumple-faced moppet with a bush of wiry black hair descending to his browline. He's got a high squeaky voice like rubbing styrofoam. O'Reilly is known to all players. The carte blanche he enjoys is a residual benefit that goes along with his title: "Phone-Sex Infomercial King of Western Canada." Jack O'Reilly's Lounge Dial-A-Date! Weeknights 2am from Dundee to Dakota.
As arranged through channels, the phone sex king believes I'm a well-to-do "Manhattanite" looking to partner with a content provider for my new Web empire. In this business, it never hurts to know people with discretionary funds. O'Reilly is only too happy to help me (unwittingly) accomplish my real goal: a firsthand glimpse inside that which no news organ has ever been permitted–Camera Delights.
From Camera Delights' base here in Winnipeg, there flows an estimated 85-90 percent of the world's continuous live interactive hardcore, orgy, dungeon, gay, lesbian, scat, geriatric, ethnic, pregnant, gyno amputee and freak sex feeds. According to Jay Servidio, due to U.S. indecency laws Canada is a repository of this stuff. Camera Delights is to adult online what, say, McDonald's corporate is to its franchisees–beef central. "Everything but snuff," says O'Reilly, adding, "but who knows, eh?"
Camera Delights practically mints money by selling its feeds both directly to webmasters and to middleman content providers. Their content gets repackaged and resold a thousand times over and, according to O'Reilly, "everyone profits along the way." The feeds eventually become available to small, turnkey businesses like the ones Jay Servidio sets up for his clients. Though live interactive currently represents only 15 percent of total adult Internet revenue, a membership site cannot draw customers without packaging it in its menu of services. Live interactive share of the revenue pie will grow as availability of highspeed bandwidth increases.
Camera Delights is an hermetic operation with alleged mob ties. My initial requests for journalistic access were all flatly declined. Unreturned phone calls, unanswered e-mails. I was on the verge of trashing the idea until some surly low-totem Canuck in their back office practically challenged me by assuring me over the phone that I was receiving the exact treatment proffered two highly connected New York glossies and a major cable network film crew.
"Why," he reasoned, "if we've turned them down, should we accommodate you?"
Why indeed, Terrence. Now I've come, and I've got the phone sex king of WesternCanada with me. And so we wait from a busy street in downtown Winnipeg. A crisp, clean, Canada day on a sidewalk of flower shops, restaurants, record stores and bookstores. We stand at a doorway with drabbish brown faux-marble siding. O'Reilly, who lays just the faintest Elmer Fudd into his R's, is irate because "you don't keep O'Weilly waiting."
We wait. And comes flying down the stairs a young Hispanic-looking man. A wraith with an Eminem buzzcut, earrings in both ears and puffy down vest. Shift over. Done for the day.
"Who is it?" says the intercom voice.
"O'Reilly, for Chwist sake!"
We're buzzed in. We climb a flight of stairs and turn right onto a long, narrow hallway with light blue walls and a coating of black fingerprint smudge. The door frames are a darker blue. There are 23 small, say 10-by-10, rooms in this first hallway. To the right of each door is a narrow vertical strip of glass brick that has been covered in cardboard from the inside.
We turn the corner at the end of the hallway and pass a bathroom located at the top of a 3-foot stair. The door is wide open. Inside are two brunettes. Both are naked. One is shaving her legs, the other is on the toilet. A handheld video camera resting on the white linoleum-tiled floor points up at the girl on the toilet. A poster of a naked woman hangs above the toilet. Odd redundancy. I don't realize I'm staring. But the woman shaving her legs does. She hops with her left leg still on the sink, reaches out and slams the door shut. O'Reilly looks at me, raises his eyebrows.
"Happy Pee Pee Fun Time, eh?"
Camera Delights takes up the entire second and a portion of the third story of a city block. It is an aboveground catacomb, a labyrinth of identical narrow, blue-on-blue hallways. We come to the brain center, a subdivided office of low ceilings, desks, rack servers, PCs and monitors. Surrounding each desk is a collage of cutouts or newspaper postings reflecting the personal music/sports tastes of its respective occupant. It hews generally to hockey.
To our right at the entrance floor-to-ceiling metal shelving holds about 100 starched white towels. A hamper sits nearby. Above the hamper some sort of scheduling board with aforementioned categories across the top. What's remarkable is how quiet it is here. I'd expected darkness, covered windows and so forth. But this is like some sort of sound vacuum chamber. We've seen nobody other than the bathroom girls.
"Who the hell buzzed us in?" asks O'Reilly.
We poke into different offices looking for a guy named Brad. Brad is the company president.
Finally we encounter a ponytailed man sitting at a computer next to a wall of rack servers.
"Brad's not coming in today."
Fine with me, I think. I buy a Snickers from a vending machine back at the entrance. A notice taped to the machine announces sign-ups for the spring softball league. Fast-pitch league teams forming. First practice April 16th. See Terry.
O'Reilly and I stand at a monitor bank. It's 11 a.m. and four of 16 screens are active. On the first screen a young man is alternately pulling his butt cheeks apart and typing at a keyboard. On the second screen are the bathroom girls we've just encountered. On the third screen a tanned, completely shaved blonde woman faces the camera, straddles a guy, throws her hair back over her shoulders and stuffs him inside of her. On the fourth screen a fat woman eats fruit.
That's a joke. On the fourth screen a girl in a Matchbox-Twenty t-shirt talks into the camera. "I know her!" says O'Reilly. "She was in one of my infomercials. Sweet girl."
At any given time, Camera Delights employs about 300 men and women (split 20/80, respectively). Models are solicited primarily through classified ads on adult-industry employment websites, and print classified ads in local swinger-sex scene newspapers. Strip clubs provide a steady flow of local and international talent as well. U.S.-based porn actors and actresses working the Canadian strip circuit will often stop in for a day of live cam stripping. With enough advance notice, Camera Delights can send word to its webmaster clients who can then promote these special visits to the end user.
Monthly model turnover at Camera Delights runs about 20 percent. As is the case in phone sex, models are encouraged to develop personal, ongoing relationships with clients.
O'Reilly shows me to a room adjacent to the office suite. Green lockers line the right-hand wall, cubbyholes line the left. First and last names are written on masking tape. Inside a few of the cubbyholes sit heart-shaped cellophane-wrapped chocolate boxes. The sign below the analog wall clock reads: Please take your flowers home with you or throw away promptly.
Matron Chuzzlewit. Of the fleshy gullet, straight from the Dickens. She's dying to know: "Isn't there a glut?"
The Rabbi is prepared. "At any given time there're about 50,000 adult websites online, and guess what? You're still not in a competitive marketplace. Two-thirds of those sites look like shit. They lose money and they get shut down."
A knock on the door. A timid gentleman glances down at his Seminar Center prospectus.
"I'm sorry," he peeps. "Which class is..."
"Sir, this is…PORNOGRAPHY!" Belly laughs. The door slams.
"As I was saying, design is crucial. You gotta create a consistent look. The free tour is critical. It's your primary sales pitch, and here's how it's gotta be done."
Pencils at the ready and a deep breath. Bring on the science.
"Page one of the tour says, ‘We have 100,000 pics in our library. We got black girls, we've got white girls, we've got Asian girls. We've got girls with penises, we've got girls with no penises. We've got girls with large breasts, small breasts, we've got girls with no breasts. We've got girls with facial hair, girls with beards.'" Deep breath. "Wanna join now? No? Fine, continue the tour. Page two, ‘We've got 100,000 feature length videos. We've got gynecological exams with the tools, and the masks and the stirrups.' H'bout now? No? Okay, page three. Page three talks about jungle fever. We got black guys with white girls, we've got white guys with black girls, and we're all mixed up together. Wanna join now?
"Enough!" booms the Rabbi. "Who can tell me? What's the point of the tour?"
Chuzzlewit with her hand up high. "To sell."
"That's right!"
They high-five.
"Now listen up. Whenever you sell something to someone, be it porno or lunar shuttle tickets or copiers, this is what you do."
Pencils up.
"You tell them what you're about to tell them. Then you tell them. Then you tell them what you've told them. And you repeat that whole thing over and over. You stand up on the top of the desk, crack open the client's mouth, climb inside and don't stop talking until he's seeing things your way."
Ken and his wife Farrah are a Southern couple in their mid-50s. They have two children. Ken works in finance, Farrah in human resources. About six months ago Ken launched a membership website called WantonWife.com. The sight features X-rated still photos and video clips of Farrah alone and with other men and women.
"We did WantonWife for fun at the beginning. The early response was so good we believed we could make money at it. But technically speaking, we didn't know much."
Ken met Servidio in January at the biannual Adult Internet trade show in Las Vegas. He brought his business over to Servidio soon thereafter. Since January, Ken's been grossing $6000 to $7000 a month with about $1400 in expenses. With the Rabbi's help, Ken has identified some essentials that affect his business:
(1) Service. Re-bills–the monthly recurring billing charged to a member's credit card–"are the name of the game. Re-bills create a consistent revenue flow which allows me to reinvest and grow WantonWife. In our case, guys are coming in to view and interact mostly with one person–Farrah. It's like they're wanting to have a sort of fantasy relationship with her, which is great. So it's important that we provide fresh content every week and respond to their requests for a particular type of photo.
"At any time, when a member wants to cancel, it gets handled right away. Billing is smooth because we deal with the best company around, CCbill. Automatic, electronic payment on the first and fifteenth of every month."
(2) Speed. "Bandwidth is really crucial," says Ken. "If a download takes forever a guy's just gonna get frustrated and leave. Who can blame him?"
Ken is soft-spoken. But his voice picks up when he comes to the final principle.
(3) Traffic. "This one's pretty obvious. You can build the most gorgeous site in the world and if you don't have an audience, you won't make any money."
"So how do you drive traffic?"
"Well, we're still trying to figure that out. We didn't have a great experience with bulk e-mail. We do some advertising on adult search engines. Banner linking probably helps, but I haven't had the time to do that just yet. We're still very new at this."
Ken and Farrah devote an average of three hours a day, every day, to WantonWife. He's planning on launching another site with the Rabbi in the near future. By this time next year, conditions remaining ceteris paribus, Ken projects WantonWife will be generating monthly net of $12,000. With their profits, Ken and Farrah are building a lake house and girding their retirement accounts.
As for the political climate and possible antisex legislation?
"We're Republicans. I was for Bush. I know they're more aggressive in legislating against this sort of thing, but I don't see it as a threat. My personal feeling is it's so big and so powerful, I don't see how it could be shut down."
He adds, "I'd love to see more control put on it so that minors can't get access."
The WorkingGirl.Com is a feature-length documentary film currently in postproduction. It was written and directed by James Ronald Whitney, whose first project, Just Melvin, debuts April 22 on HBO. Hearing that I was writing about amateur adult porn as a cottage business for Mom 'n' Pop in the new recession, Whitney suggested I screen a rough edit of his film, since it touches upon some of the personal and professional pitfalls people encounter when running an amateur online adult site.
Whitney explains, "About a year ago I was contacted by my old friend Sharon Alt, who'd written to tell me that she couldn't pay her bills, especially the health insurance and preschool bills for her four-year-old son, Jake. Sharon said she'd done due diligence and concluded that the Internet was the place to be, because of the terrific amount of money going specifically to these amateur sites.
"Essentially," says Whitney, "my old friend had decided to become an amateur porn star to pay her son's bills. The problem was she had no audience."
Alt appealed to Whitney, a vice president at Wall Street brokerage firm Tucker Anthony, and he set to writing a business plan.
"I soon realized that if I made a movie about her business venture, the movie audience might then traffic her website. If they liked what they saw, they might pay for membership."
So Whitney was going to shoot porn and use it as content on his friend Sharon's new and improved website. But first he had to do some due diligence of his own. To learn how to properly design and market an adult website, he turned to none other than the Rabbi, Jay Servidio.
In The WorkingGirl.Com Jay Servidio struts the floor of the Cybernext Expo 2000 Trade Show in New Orleans, introducing the doc crew (Whitney, et al.) to all of the big players in the online world. Later, at a table inside of what looks to be a Cracker Barrel restaurant, Jay Servidio gives Alt a point-by-point tutorial on porn site marketing and design.
Unlike so much of the popular discourse on the subject of porn and porn people, The WorkingGirl.Com suspends moral judgment, leaving that entirely up to the viewer. The lighter and less effective side of the movie pokes self-effacing fun at the director and crew, whose purportedly monastic sensibilities are quickly drenched in the sticky fluid of discovery of the reality of shooting porn (sights, sounds, delicious smells). In the course of preparing content for Alt's new website they take "Porn Cinematography 101" lessons with online triple-X celebrity Teri Weigel and her manager/husband Murrill Muglio.
So it's a film with an avocation (and vice versa): to drive membership to a website, whose profits will then fund a trust for Alt's four-year-old son. If that sounds a little slick, the film recuses itself of its own cleverness ("Wall Street and the Porn World join caring hands to save the life of a child!… A movie to sell an adult website") through a fierce, exhaustive and objective mining of the ethical issues at its core.
Thoroughly explored are Alt's tangled relationships and dubious motivations for doing porn. One of the film's more wrenching scenes shows Alt in a bitter quarrel with her ex-wife Marci (the guileless, lovable bulldyke with whom Jake was conceived through insemination). Marci believes Alt's choice of online sex is potentially hurtful to the child. She also thinks Alt is a flake and is simply using her/their kid to justify what amounts to a personal fetish. Where between Alt and Marci there was once love, there's now only paint-peeling hatred.
That scene which occurs late in the film eventually delivers a much-needed cathartic chestnut. But neither woman actually emerges victorious and this is how Whitney prefers his art: unsettled.
Alexa is 33. BA and master's in journalism, both from Columbia. Listening from the back row to the Rabbi's solipsistic drone.
"…so then my friend Bill tried to get me into the phone sex industry back when we worked at Sprint. Late 80s baby, 900 was born and we knew it was gonna be huge! Only I'm Roman Catholic, didn't want to get into that…"
Unlike most of the others here, Alexa's already got a business up and running. She's here to learn what new tricks might be applied to her fledgling phone sex site, GoodTimePhone.com. Somewhere in the course of the narrative, the Rabbi praises some credit-card billing outfit and Alexa demurs.
"What?" he snaps.
"It's just–"
"What?"
"Well, I run a phone sex site and–"
"Phone sex is dead, lady! Didn't you get the memo?"
Later, Alexa tells me, "Well, Jay Servidio's right when he says cam-sex is the new phone sex. But phone sex is far from dead."
Alexa's site is basically a compendium of female phone-sex subcontractors who are amassed under the GoodTimePhone.com moniker. They hang their digital shingles through a private FTP link to her site. To generate repeat business she asks that they work a minimum 25 hours per week. In three short months her site is in the black and turning a small profit.
"I'm determined to run a dependable, respectable operation, and I have strong principles about treating my girls right." Alexa says that her girls make well above the industry standard 55 percent host/45 percent subcontractor split. "It's a scam to pay someone only 45 percent of their earnings."
"Wouldn't you make more money running a hardcore membership site?" I ask.
"I'm kind of afraid to get into the membership portion. I feel like I'm on the edge of being involved in pornography. Not that there's anything wrong with pornography. But I'm not ready to take that plunge. With phone sex, a boyfriend and a girlfriend can do that very innocently. It's very different from having sex in front of a camera."
But a word on the numbers. When it comes to porn, verifiable revenue data is next to impossible to find. There's no way of knowing if figures are inflated to fire business and fan egos, or deflated to ward off the taxman. Some sources insist lowballing is the more common practice.
"Keeps the taxes down and potential competition at bay."
So you might do well by reducing all quoted revenues herein by a factor of your own skepticism.
It's also commonly held that it's too late to become Rockefeller-rich through online adult entertainment, because of big-player competition and the cost of continuously updated premium content (videos, pics, live feeds).
No argument there. But what about a low-overhead side gig that brings a little stability in these trying economic times?
Here, the consensus seems to be a resounding yes, but with two caveats. Caveat number one: it's more drudgery than you think. Alexa, for instance, spends a large portion of time checking up on her link partners, verifying that they've placed her banners on their sites as they've agreed to. Caveat number two: you can't simply acquire a set number of clients and then sit still.
To his credit, Servidio makes this known from the start. "Members only stay with a site three months or less. So an owner's gotta be out there continuously trolling for new business."
Trolling means reinvesting profits back into advertising that drives traffic. Reinvestment and growth take time. Like the Rabbi said, it's a process.
Still, newcomers and veterans alike believe in the immutable popularity of the product: the barriers to entry are low, it's legal, it can be done from home, and if you do the work, it sells.
And so the Rabbi makes his pitch.
"Four thousand dollars for a customized, turnkey website, plus $100 a month for hosting and $125 a month for video for the first three months. That buys you 100,000 feature length movies, 2000 new channels added monthly, with 100 live rooms."
The hands go up.
What about billing? What about bandwidth? Should I incorporate? Maintenance? Advertising?
They follow him down the stairs and out onto 34th St.
What about consultation? How do I get paid? Can I buy a URL direct from you?
The gusts earlier are breezes now. Drizzle. It's late and the broad midtown cross street is a hollow chasm, a sound chamber refracting the Doppler wail of ambulances skidding north toward Times Square.
"I'm off to Budapest," says the Rabbi. "For the big European trade show." Card swaps and handshakes. "But let's do business when I get back."
About the Author
Jay Servidio started his career in the telecom industry. Having worked for MCI, Sprint and AT&T in various sales positions starting from telemarketing up to national accounts. His ability to manage accounts always had him in the top 3% of his peers. Wanting more challenge Jay Servidio started Teleteria in 1994 to resell 900 and 970 numbers and offer custom adult website packages. Teleteria quickly became the industry leader in the adult design business and Jay Servidio started teaching classes about the business in NYC and Toronto monthly which led to guest speaking at trade shows and conferences all over the world. He has been written up in many periodicals such as a front page article in The Wall Street Journal. Teleteria also builds gaming and commercial sites and can be found at www.teleteria.net or call toll free 1 866 408 8694.
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