Police cheating scandal sparks divide

Some view Clarke as a hero. Others question trail-blazing officer’s claims

- WENDY GILLIS

Toronto police Supt. Stacy Clarke was spared a criminal charge, but has pleaded guilty to seven counts of police misconduct in the cheating scandal.

On a January morning in 2022, Supt. Stacy Clarke sat inside a Toronto police interview room, her lawyer by her side.

The first Black female superintendent in the history of the service was being read her rights. She was the focus of a criminal breach-of trust investigation.

That week, the Toronto police force was plunged into scandal. In what are now well-known facts, Clarke — a superintendent sitting on the sergeants’ promotional panel — had leaked confidential interview questions to six preferred candidates in the highly competitive process. Word got out, spawning a full-blown police probe, freezing promotions service-wide, and creating a public spectacle of the force’s internal workings.

“Why these six officers?” Det. Sgt. Robert North asked Clarke, according to a recently released transcript of the interview on Jan. 12, 2022.

They were all qualified candidates, Clarke replied, but several had been passed over before.

“I know that they had also gone through some systemic challenges throughout their careers. And had, you know, areas of differential treatment amongst them.”

Earlier this month, in a remarkable public airing about systemic racism in Toronto police, Clarke expanded on her motives with candour rare for a high-ranking cop.

The officers were all Black. And Clarke — who was ultimately spared a criminal charge but has pleaded guilty to seven counts of police misconduct — helped them cheat in a last-ditch attempt to “level the playing field.”