The scene is intense — a group of Peel police officers drawing their weapons to stop a suspected group of car thieves who had just rammed a couple of police cruisers.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Khalil Lashgari, one of the onlookers who filmed the chaotic scene. “It was scary, but at the same time I couldn’t stop watching.”

The violent incident, which occurred on Aug. 3 at Eldorado Park in Brampton, is indicative of a recent trend in policing in Peel: officers are using their weapons more often.

Data obtained by The News and The Guardian shows that, as of Aug. 15, there have been 442 “use-of-force” incidents by police in Peel.

A Peel officer must fill out a use-of-force report any time a gun or Taser is drawn, pointed or used, or when physical force or another weapon (baton, plastic bullets, etc.) is used. In dozens of cases, multiple use-of-force reports are filed for a single incident.

Last year, there were 755 use-of-force incidents by Peel police in Mississauga and Brampton, while in 2016 there were 654 incidents. In 2015, there were 620 incidents.

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Of the 755 incidents last year, 138 people were injured, while 50 officers were also hurt in the encounters.

Statistics also show that police are frequently dealing with “armed individuals in crisis,” said Peel Insp. Lisa Hewison, also president of Ontario Women in Law Enforcement, who authored the 2017 Use of Force Report in Peel.

The service monitors those situations to see where further training is required, she said.

Police “have made it a priority to focus on providing education and training to officers in relation to de-escalating situations involving individuals in crisis,” Hewison said. “These efforts have included activities such as specific training scenarios designed around officers encountering an individual in crisis and living with a possible mental health illness.”

Eighty-two of last year’s use-of-force incidents involved police dealing with emotionally disturbed people, the report said.

Last year, there were 235 incidents where officers encountered people using or carrying a weapon, an 18 per cent increase from 2016.

Of those 235 incidents, 27 involved firearms while 21 involved replica guns.

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These incidents forced officers into using weapons.

“The most frequent use-of-force option reported was pointing a firearm,” Hewison said.

Police pointed their guns at people 685 times last year and fired their guns 18 times, compared to pointing their guns 548 times and firing 21 times in 2016.

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“It is believed that the increase in reports of pointing firearms at a subject is related to an increase in requests for the tactical unit to support high-risk events,” Hewison said.

Longtime Peel criminal lawyer Gary Batasar said there is a sad and new reality that officers are dealing with in and around the region.

“The harsh reality of the world we currently live in is that guns are more prevalent on the streets of the GTA and, in turn, the police oftentimes have to utilize their weapons in order to defend you, themselves or another individual,” he said.

“The rise in the use of force by police may be alarming to some, however it must be looked at in proper context with the rise or increase in the use of weapons throughout the GTA. As a society we obviously don’t want to see our police using weapons unnecessarily, however we also cannot look at things with blinders on and expect that force is not to be met with force.”

Peel Police Chief Jennifer Evans has said the force is dealing with an increase in shootings and the number of bullets being fired.

“Shootings, we’re really struggling with,” she conceded. “A lot of the shootings we’re investigating, there are a lot of people in the room, a lot of people at the party, a lot of people in the parking lot, but nobody sees anything.”

Another weapon used often by police is the conducted energy weapon (CEW), also known as a Taser. Police deployed the weapon 201 times last year.

“Due to the expansion of the CEW program, an increase in CEW deployment is predictable as officers may choose to use the CEW over and above physical force or other options as a safer alternative in some situations,” Hewison said.

Tasers are considered an intermediate weapon on the use-of-force scale — a less-lethal option before a firearm.

While two men have died in Peel after being hit with a Taser in the past 14 years, neither death was attributed to the use of the Taser.

All front-line Peel police officers will be carrying Tasers by 2020.

In 2016, the Peel Police Services Board approved the expansion of the number of Tasers issued to include all sworn police officers. It was decided the training, purchase and issuance would take place over a five-year period, 2016 to 2020.