Chief Thai Truong of the London Police Service (LPS) has not publicly commented on council’s plan to potentially hire its own team of City of London Special Constables. That’s because Truong hasn’t seen it yet. “I’ve heard all kinds of suggestions and all kinds of scenarios, but we have not actually seen a plan,” the chief told CTV News. “So it would be irresponsible for me to comment on any of these issues without actually seeing the plan.” On Tuesday, Coun. Susan Stevenson expressed concern about directing city staff to spend months developing an implementation plan that would include special constables potentially performing traffic enforcement in school zones before hearing from London police. “Police are not available to answer the questions, and I’m reading [in the amended motion] about traffic-related offenses, which to me does not fall under my municipal council hat,” Stevenson told colleagues. However, after a marathon debate, council voted 10-5 in favour of requesting a staff report in Q1 of 2027 (Trosow, Ferreira, Franke, Stevenson, and Hopkins opposed). Last year, London police provided input about potential training and governance to a consultant conducting a feasibility study on behalf of city staff. Truong says it will be up to city staff to decide when LPS is engaged in the development of the special constables implementation plan. “We’re actually looking forward to hearing about the plan,” he said. “[It’s] not a plan that is police-driven, this is a plan that is driven by the city, and ultimately city council if it gets approved.” Council also supported an amendment by Coun. Corrine Rahman to skip a recommended two-year pilot project and instead have staff report back about how to implement a permanent program. Last October, a consultant’s feasibility study identified four potential core responsibilities of City of London Special Constables: Several councillors have suggested that the city’s Coordinated Informed Response (CIR) team, whose responsibilities include removing homeless encampments, have experienced safety concerns when LPS officers are unavailable. It has delayed the removal of some problematic or inappropriately located encampments. Police Chief Thai Truong emphasizes that he’s only in the third year of a four-year plan to increase the number of police officers per capita closer to the national average. He acknowledged, “There are situations where we get called that is not life and death, and unfortunately [for] individuals including some city staff, there are going to be times where they will be waiting longer than they would like.” City of London Special Constables would have the ability to enforce four provincial Acts: Special constables would not be allowed to carry firearms or conducted energy weapons (Tasers) but would be equipped with “defensive” items including a Kevlar vest, handcuffs, a baton, and OC spray (pepper spray).
