TORONTO -- While reflecting on a year that saw a significant spike in shootings across the city, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said despite plans for modernization in 2020, a solution will not come easy.
“When we speak collectively on gun violence, street gang violence, there is no silver bullet, there is no pill, matrix red and blue pill, and all is better,” Saunders told a room full of reporters at Toronto Police Headquarters on Friday morning.
“Collectively, I think we are moving in the right direction, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of people with the right will and the right funding in order to get it right collectively.”
So far this year, there have been 68 homicides in Toronto. Last year, the city saw a record 96. The number of shootings, meanwhile, has been on the rise in 2019 with 464 incidents reported so far, compared to 399 this time last year.
When asked if street gang violence is a top priority heading into 2020, Saunders quickly responded saying “it’s a priority all the time.”
“I will say there appears to be more prevalence of firearms in the city. We are arresting people quite often. We’ve seized over 800 guns and we’ve laid a multitude of charges.”
But, while Saunders praised his officers for hundreds of arrests made and thousands of charges laid, he spoke to how plans involving community members and government officials need to target “the social piece.”
“It’s not a matter of dropping a bag of money into a community and saying ‘here fix it.’ You have to deal with the communities individually and identify what the specific needs are and that money has to be sustainable,” he said.
“Year-to-date we have seen an increase in gang activity in our city and this speaks to the need for both intelligence-led policing and working with our communities and government partners to address the root causes of this type of activity.”
Speaking at the year-end news conference, Saunders detailed important moments that took place in 2019, while addressing plans for the new year.
2019 was ‘transition year’ for Toronto Police Service
Coming off a year that saw the most deadly attack in Toronto, a mass shooting in a busy neighbourhood on a summer night and the apprehension of a serial killer preying on the city’s gay village, 2019 was a year for officers to “evolve and grow,” Saunders said.
“With this transition we have experienced a lot of challenges, but it also created opportunities,” he said. “I don’t have to tell anyone here that 2019 was a busy year in the city of Toronto. In fact, I don’t think you’ll ever see a year where the Chief of police in Toronto says it was a quiet year.”
One of the key moments for the police service that Saunders mentioned at the news conference while reflecting on the past almost 12 months included securing the conviction of serial killer Bruce McArthur.
The police Chief said closing the door on the McArthur investigation after he pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder in January was “one of the most prolific crimes the city has ever seen.”
Moving forward after the remarkable conviction, Saunders said, includes continuing to work and build a stronger relationship with the city’s LGBTQ community.
“We continue to learn from this case, to work on our relationships with all of the communities that we serve.”
Saunders also touched on the police service releasing details of the extensive investigation into the 2018 mass shooting on the Danforth this year. He said all of the information that was released to the public on the case in 2019 was done “in an effort to be transparent on an incident that changed our city forever.”
Several projects were mentioned by the city’s police Chief as remarkable achievements in 2019.
One of those probes was Project Community Space, which was built to “address the increase in street gang violence in at-risk neighbourhoods across the city” following a spike in shootings this past summer.
The 15-week project, which led to 463 arrests being made and 1,145 charges being laid, concluded earlier this month. At the time, officers said they were hopeful the initiative would be extended, but no official announcement has been made by Saunders thus far.
“It was good from many perspectives,” Saunders said when asked about the impact of Project Community Space.
“We learned that collectively when we realign resources that are led by the street gang unit and intelligence combined, we can be a lot more surgical.”
Saunders said that the police service used to “blanket communities with officers” but have since realized that approach was not satisfactory among residents.”
“We are trying to satisfy the communities’ needs in real time. We are taking a run on being more strategic.”
Some other notable stories Saunders reflected on from the past year included a cop jumping into a swimming pool to save a drowning man, another officer using his own money to buy a computer and clothing for a struggling resident and several pets being reunited with their owners thanks to investigators.
‘Innovation and investment’ in 2020
In the new year, Saunders said the police service is prepared to “adapt to the changing needs of the city.”
“Public safety in a city where the population and density increase annually requires innovation and investment, both of which are in our plans for 2020,” he said.
Going into 2020, the police Chief said more of his officers will be wearing body cameras and their more than three-decade-old shift schedule model will be revamped.
“Allow for increased enforcement and less reliance on overtime, which is costly and not sustainable from both a financial and a wellness perspective,” he said. “Investing in people, communities and technologies to meet the needs of policing in this growing city.”
As well, the Toronto Police Service announced one day before the year-end news conference that they will begin collecting race-based data in the new year as part of an initiative aimed at identifying, monitoring and eliminating potential system racism within the service.
The $1.076 billion police budget for 2020, has been approved by the Toronto Police Services Board, which including the hiring of 341 news officers.
The budget will be considered by Toronto city council in the new year.
