Despite a $4.5 million police project aimed at reducing Toronto’s spiking levels of gun violence, the city has continued to see a record number of shootings, including the highest number of people killed or injured by guns within the last 15 years.

Toronto police released the results Friday of their 15-week initiative, “Project Community Space,” funded by all three levels of government and launched in August in the wake of rising numbers of shootings and victims.

Supt. Steve Watts, from the force’s Organized Crime Enforcement unit, said the project allowed police to have increased visibility in “high-risk areas,” led to greater monitoring of bail compliance, and saw 463 arrests and the seizure of 247 firearms.

Acknowledging the project did not result in a reduction in shootings, Watts nonetheless said the enforcement led to a “significantly” higher solve rate for shootings, “so, that’s a different aspect to just the total number of shootings.”

He declined to provide the solve rate numbers, saying he would let Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders release them.

“It’s always discouraging when someone gets shot,” Watts told reporters at a news conference Friday afternoon, when asked if he was disheartened by the high number of shootings during Project Community Space. “I don’t care if it’s one shooting a month or if it’s 50 shootings a month.”

According to Toronto police data, the 15-week period when Project Community Space was active, from Aug. 15 to Nov. 28, saw the highest number of people shot — 111 — compared to the same 15-week period in any year since 2004.

The Toronto police board issued a statement Friday “applauding” the results of the initiative. Asked by the Star whether the board was concerned there was no reduction in the number of shootings, police board chair Jim Hart stressed that the project “yielded positive results in the number of guns seized, the number of arrests made, and the number of bail compliance checks conducted.”

“While it is never easy to measure what has been prevented, it is clear the project has made us safer. Of course, it is the responsibility of many stakeholders — the service included — to work together to drive down the number of shootings,” Hart said in an email.

Since its launch, the project has been criticized by researchers and community advocates as another example of politicians plugging money into policing in response to gun violence, instead of addressing its root causes. The municipal, provincial and federal governments each put $1.5 million towards the project.

Knia Singh, a Toronto criminal lawyer and community advocate, said more police and stiffer sentences “will not change the mindsets of people who have picked up guns.” What they need is community, educational and social support, he said.

“I’m very disappointed, first of all, that $4.5 million was spent on resources which just ended up having shootings go up, when that $4.5 million could have gone into the community and you could almost guarantee that shootings would go down,” Singh said in an interview Friday.

Project Community Space was intended to last 11 weeks, but in late October Saunders announced the extension of the program “until further notice while we work to address gun violence in the city.”

Experiencing “the highest number of shootings recorded to date in Toronto ... we will keep the extended resources in place at this time,” Saunders said in an Oct. 31 statement.

Friday’s news conference came just hours after a 16-year-old boy was seriously injured in one of four shootings Thursday night, all occurring within a one-hour period. On Wednesday, Jeremy Vincent Urbina, 22, was fatally shot near Leslie Street and Finch Avenue East, becoming the city’s 67th homicide this year.

Throughout 2019, gun violence has been at record levels in Toronto. As of this week, more than 270 people had been killed or wounded in shootings this year, dozens more than the highest year-end total in police data that go back to 2004.

As of Monday, the combined total of injuries and deaths this year is up 28 per cent from the same date in 2018, which set the city’s record for the most homicides in a single year.

Fewer people have been killed by guns so far in 2019, however. Including Wednesday’s fatal shooting, 40 people have been fatally shot so far this year, down from 47 by Dec. 9, 2018.

Singh says that phenomenon — a higher number of shootings, but lower death count — is caused by young people “indiscriminately” shooting off firearms not at individuals but at whole neighbourhoods, because of area-related beefs.

“First, we need conflict resolution, then we need to get into why these kids are doing this,” Singh said.

“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,” he said.

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According to the results released by Toronto police, Project Community Space saw police arrest 97 people who were out on bail for firearm-related charges; of those, 16 were charged with a new firearm offence. The remaining 81 were charged with other offences, police said, including robbery, assault with a weapon or sexual assault.

Of the 463 arrests police made during the project period, 317 (or 28 per cent) of the 1,145 charges laid were related to firearms.

Watts said Saunders will be providing further information about the development of a “sustainable and more robust strategy to address gun violence” that will be paid for through the reallocation of existing service funds.

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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