NYPD may post detectives in Toronto Anti-terror initiative Michael Friscolanti
National Post Tuesday, July 16, 2002 The Associated Press A New York Police Department officer stands guard after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The NYPD may assign officers to Toronto, Israel and select European cities for intelligence gathering, reports say. ADVERTISEMENT TORONTO -- The New York Police Department is hoping to send a team of detectives here as part of a global anti-terror initiative aimed at preventing a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks. Recent newspaper reports say the NYPD, focused on weeding out international terrorists who may pose a threat to their city, will assign detectives to Toronto, Israel and several European cities. Another officer, reports say, will be dispatched as a liaison to Interpol, the international police agency based in Lyon, France. The global assignments, officials say, will range from fellowship programs to intelligence gathering in an effort to boost the force's ability to thwart would-be terrorists. A NYPD spokeswoman would not comment on the reports on Monday, so it is unclear whether the department wants to send officers to Canadian cities other than Toronto. Any partnership between cities would have to be approved by both the province and the federal government. A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said Toronto police would have to agree to the plan first. "Nothing has been finalized and we're still in the negotiation stages," said Toronto Police Sergeant Robb Knapper, adding that Chief Julian Fantino was first approached by the New York police last year. "These things, as you can imagine, take a tremendous amount of time." Knapper said Chief Fantino, who is in regular contact with New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, is still not sure if the move is even necessary. Because the proposed partnership would consist mainly of intelligence sharing, Knapper said, it may be possible to simply trade relevant information over the telephone. "It's not like they're going to be standing guarding the American consulate," he said. "It would be more of a case of trading intelligence information." But if New York police are eventually assigned to Toronto, Knapper stressed they would not have the same investigative powers as local authorities. Any work they did, such as questioning of witnesses, would have to be carried out in conjunction with -- and with permission from -- Toronto Police. Despite the assurance, some observers worry the city's force could lose some of its independence by inviting New York officers into the fold. "There needs to be very strict guidelines about what the NYPD officers can and cannot do," said Guy Caron, a spokesman for the Council of Canadians, an organization that promotes the country's sovereignty. "If they are here to tell Toronto officers that they should do this or that because U.S. interests are at stake, then that's interfering." These types of partnerships, however, have existed in Canada for decades. Since the 1940s, for example, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has had an undisclosed amount of attachés -- agents who liaise with local authorities -- stationed at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and the U.S. consulate in Vancouver. In turn, officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are stationed in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has also had a long-standing presence in Canada. And since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which killed approximately 3,000 people in New York and Washington, the U.S. and Canadian governments have worked together on numerous security initiatives, which include deploying joint customs teams at major borders and improving the exchange of fingerprint data between the RCMP and the FBI. "If we've got U.S. customs agents on this side of the border and Canadian customs agents on the other side of the border, then a small handful of New York's finest shouldn't surprise or antagonize us," said David Rudd, the executive director of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, an organization that promotes the awareness of security issues. It is unusual, however, that the visiting officers would come from a municipal force. Anti-terrorism initiatives, including intelligence gathering, has historically been the job of federal agencies, but Commissioner Kelly said his department is not trying to overstep its boundaries. "We want to emphasize, we're not looking to supplant anything that's going on in the federal government," he was quoted as saying in The New York Times yesterday. "This is to augment." Rudd said he is not surprised by Commissioner Kelly's desire to expand his force globally, especially considering how important the notion of intelligence sharing -- even among municipal forces -- has become since Sept. 11. "I'm surprised somewhat," he said. "But in the context of 9/11, perhaps not that surprised." © Copyright 2002 National Post
