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“Hours later, those guns could be anywhere,” one officer said of the risk posed by the delay.

“Nobody looked into it for at least six hours, which is unacceptable and is dangerous to this community,” another officer said. “It is absolutely unacceptable for a police service to be operating like this.”

Chief Charles Bordeleau told the Citizen in an email that the force is evaluating changes to the on-call system and practices “to ensure they are working and meeting the operational needs of the Service and to ensure public safety at all times of the day.”

Bordeleau would not answer whether the theft of multiple guns warrants an immediate guns-and-gangs response or whether on-call supervisors are facing hurdles when detectives won’t pick up their phones.

“I am not going to comment on any ongoing investigations,” Bordeleau said.

According to the chief’s last verbal report less than a month ago to the police board, the civilian body that oversees police, officers had seized 17 crime guns to date in 2015. Now, in a single incident, a comparable number of weapons is believed to have hit the streets.

Gun violence was at a record high in 2014, and anti-gang officers have always maintained that gang-related shootings, carried out with illegally obtained firearms, peak in the summer months. Quashing guns and gangs in the city continues to be one of Bordeleau’s “operational priorities.”

Senior officers have contended that officers are paid quite handsomely with what’s referred to as “callback” pay where officers return to work when called in. When a detective agrees to return to work for an after-hours incident, he or she receives time-and-a-half for every hour worked and must be paid for a minimum of three hours. But many investigators say the move to keep their phones off when their shift ends has less to do with pay and more to do with the direction of a cost-cutting police force that is operating like a business and is nickel-and-diming fundamental parts of police investigations.