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As police across the GTA progressively stopped doing street checks over the past five years, gun violence and murders spiked violently, statistics obtained by the Sun through the Freedom of Information Act show.

Back in 2013, when the controversial practice known as carding was increasingly coming under fire over racial profiling concerns, Toronto Police conducted 196,907 street checks — a year that saw 22 gun murders.

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In the five years that followed, street checks dropped precipitously — first to 17,001 in 2014 and virtually none in subsequent years.

The city’s cops simply all but stopped doing street checks.

Toronto Police have conducted a single street check in 2018, only 25 in 2017 and none in each of the two previous years.

Meanwhile, gun violence over that time has escalated rapidly — and not only in Toronto.

Shooting have also spiked in Peel Region where the practice was significantly curtailed after the former Liberal government slapped province-wide restrictions on street checks.