The Toronto Star reports the Chief of Toronto Police was warned to "educate" his officers about their reporting duties to the SIU six months before the vicious beating of Dafonte Miller, allegedly at the hands of an off-duty Toronto cop.
Toronto and Durham Police have been blasted for not alerting the SIU when Miller was injured in Whitby in late December 2016. It was the 19-year-old's lawyer who called the police watchdog four months later. The SIU has since charged Toronto Police constable Michael Therieault and his brother with assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and mischief.
The Star says the impetus behind SIU director Tony Laparco's letter to Chief Mark Saunders was a 2015 case in which a man was bleeding from his ears following a police raid. The man's ear drum had been ruptured. Police did not notify the SIU and the agency did not learn of the injury until two and half months after the fact, a delay that Laparco said hampered investigators.
"It is my hope that you will implement appropriate educational requirements for your officers so that similar problems do not arise in the future," The Star reports Laparco wrote to Saunders.
It is not clear whether the Chief acted on Laparco's request.
Last week, the SIU announced charges Toronto constable Joseph Dropuljic for the alleged assault of a man in November 2015 during which he says he lost consciousness and suffered a concussion. Police did not notify the SIU. But the case landed on a desk at the agency 11 months later when after the alleged victim approached the African Canadian Legal Clinic which passed the story on to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director which reported it to the SIU.