04-16 - Death in Police Custody - Definitions

Question 1

Chief’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) On-Call Designated Authority means:

Answer 1

a member of the cadre of on-call Toronto Police Service uniform senior officers that acts as the designated authority and manages the SIU event in the field on behalf of the Chief.

Question 2

Death in Custody means:

Answer 2

the death of a person at any time during an arrest/detention and before the person’s release or transfer to another agency’s custody.

Question 3

Special Investigations Unit (SIU) Mandate means:

Answer 3

that the SIU Director may cause an investigation to be conducted into any incident in which any of the following occurs, if the incident may have resulted from the criminal conduct of a Service official:

• the death of a person
• the serious injury of a person
• the discharge of a firearm at a person
• the sexual assault of a person, as reported by the person.

Question 4

The SIU Director may cause an investigation to be conducted if, at the time of the incident:

Answer 4

• the official was on duty; or
• the official was off-duty but
• engaged in the investigation, pursuit, detention or arrest of a person or otherwise exercised the powers of a police officer, special constable, peace officer or other prescribed person, as the case may be, whether or not the official intended to exercise such powers or identified him or herself as a person who may exercise such powers, or
• the incident involved equipment or other property issued to the official in relation to his or her duties.