After a year that’s seen a record number of people shot in the city, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders says he will combat gang activity in 2020 through greater use of force’s intelligence and guns and gangs units.

“Street gang violence is a top priority all the time, but I will say there appears to be more prevalence of firearms in the city,” Saunders told reporters at police headquarters Friday.

At a year-end press conference dominated by the topic of Toronto’s rising gun violence, Saunders acknowledged the city’s policing needs were becoming increasingly complex. It was another busy year, but “I don’t think that there will ever be a year where you’ll see a chief of police in Toronto saying that it was a quiet year,” he said.

So far in 2019, 277 people have been shot, a tally that’s dozens more than the highest year-end total within the last 15 years.

The spike in gun violence is fuelled in part by the drug trade, Saunders said. A “game changer” has been the expensive and highly addictive opioid fentanyl, which is killing people via overdoses — there have been 981 in the city this year, he said — and shootings over turf.

“Members of the street gangs are protecting their environments for the distribution piece for that drug activity,” Saunders said.

Although the number of people fatally shot is lower than last year — 40 people have died in shootings in 2019, seven fewer than this time last year — the city has seen a surge in recorded shootings: there have been 464 so far, compared to 399 year-to-date last year, and 370 year-to-date in 2017.

Saunders said there have been a lot of “random shootings” into buildings, the air, or at cars, though he said these incidences are sometimes strategic, from shooters who want to send a message. Officers can sometimes glean intelligence from these shootings even though there may be no victim, he said.

In 2020, Toronto police will continue an approach they adopted during Project Community Space, $4.5 million gun violence project that wrapped last month after 15 weeks.

The project saw an increase in officer presence in strategic areas, but ultimately did not result in a reduction in shootings.

Nonetheless, stressing gains that included gun seizures and firearm-related arrests, Saunders said he will continue to be more “strategic” in enforcement, in part by putting more resources towards the intelligence and guns and gangs unit.

In the past, police “would blanket communities with officers,” which he acknowledged was divisive among some residents. This time they relied more on the guns and gangs and intelligence units to be “a lot more surgical.”

“We took a run on being more strategic, knowing who the players are that have no problems putting a gun in their waist and going out and raising mayhem,” Saunders said.

As a result, during Project Community Space police increased the solve rate for non-fatal shootings to 30 per cent, up from 13 per cent, Saunders said.

Community advocates have criticized the decision by all levels of government to pour money into policing; Project Community Space was funded by $1.5 million each from municipal, provincial and federal government.

Critics say this money would be far better invested in communities impacted by gun violence, and by addressing the root causes of crime, including lack of job opportunities, housing and more.

“If money comes in (to communities), the ripple effect would be enormous. But the money keeps going to the same pockets: to the police, to the courts. Not to the people most affected,” community advocate and lawyer Knia Singh told the Star last week.

Saunders stressed Friday that gun violence begins with “the social piece,” when “there’s no opportunity, no proper resources within those communities.”

Saunders’ contract was extended by the Toronto police board this summer, keeping him as top cop until April 30, 2021.

With files from Ed Tubb

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis

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