Craig Bromell

Who is Craig Bromell?

Craig Bromell is a Canadian radio personality. Prior to his broadcast career, Bromell served as president of the Toronto Police Association from 1997 to 2003. In that position, he was often at odds with the two chiefs of police during his tenure, Julian Fantino and David Boothby. Previous to becoming TPA president, Bromell led a wildcat strike of officers in 51 Division.

In 1996, Thomas Kerr, a homeless man claimed that he was beaten up by nine police officers including Bromell in retaliation for breaking another police officer's arm in a previous encounter. A settlement was made before Bromell, now head of the Toronto Police Union, was scheduled to testify and would be subject to questioning about the event in question. The internal investigator's testimony stated that police claimed that they had never picked up Kerr. However, a fingerprint of Kerr's was lifted from the cruiser that one of the officer's had been using. The investigator also noticed later changes to police notebooks to make it look as though Kerr had an eye injury and was bleeding from his mouth before the alleged beating.

In 2000, the police association under Bromell's leadership launched a telemarketing campaign called Operation True Blue, in which donors were given windshield stickers for their cars. Critics charged that Bromell and the union were amassing a war chest in order to target political opponents, and raised the concern that police officers could offer special privilege to people whose cars bore the stickers. Fantino soon forced the campaign to cease. That same year, Bromell released a list of 17 councillors he recommended that the union endorse during the municipal elections. All of the 17 were conservatives who advocated curtailing the right of the municipal police services board to review internal affairs, especially in the city's racial profiling controversy.