OPP leads new taskforce to combat gun crime featuring Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Niagara, Oshawa
Published July 12, 2022 at 8:20 pm
Police services across southern Ontario have joined forces in effort to combat gun and gang violence across the province amid a steady rise in violence.
The various police services (including Anishinabek, Barrie, Brantford, Cornwall, Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Nishnawbe-Aski, OPP Ottawa, Peel, RCMP, Sudbury, Surete du Quebec, Timmins, Toronto, Waterloo, Windsor and York police services) have formed a Guns and Gangs Joint-Forces Operation (JFO).
Last fall the Ontario government announced $75.1 million in funding to combat gun crime. ““Gun and gang violence will not be allowed to thrive in Ontario” said Premier Doug Ford at the time.
One of the seven key tenants of this policy is this establishment of these JFOs. Other objectives included; creating a provincial database of gun and gang activity, increasing the presence of Border Enforcement Security Teams, creating a provincewide joint analytics working group, and Creating a new Gun and Gang Mobile Prosecution Unit among others.
The government’s push to crack down on gun violence came as rates of the crimes were on a steady rise. Service Ontario reports a 48 per cent of gun runners are street gangs, and 90 per cent of identified street gangs use guns in their criminal enterprises.
Meanwhile these gang’s hold on the opioid black market 16 per cent to 36 per cent from 2020 to 2021. Their take over of the meth market is even more alarming. Street gangs now control some 18 per cent of the meth market, more than three times their 5 per cent share in 2020.
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Guns have also been flowing over the border in ever-higher numbers in recent years. There was an 88 per cent jump in investigations between 2017 and 2020. Between October 1, 2020 and October 1 2021 that number rose an other 52 per cent.
In effort to combat this growth, the OPP also lead the the Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit which has expanded to include Akwesasne Mohawk, Cornwall, Hamilton, and Kingston police services.
The United States Homeland Security Investigations-led Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) is on the other side of the border as well try to plug the leaks on their end.
“Collecting and sharing of information is vital to address public safety risks posed by guns and gangs in Ontario,” the OPP said, “Criminal activities perpetrated by gangs – and the ensuing violence and victimization – continue to impact Ontario communities, urban and rural.
“Gang-related crimes are on the rise as is the presence and use of illegal firearms to commit serious offences causing injury and death to participants and innocent bystanders,” they continued noting that the OPP alone had seized 879 guns last year alone.
“Illicit drugs continue to be the primary commodity through which gangs generate profit by dominating street-level sales. In an effort to maintain public safety and have an impact on public health, the OPP is aggressively investigating drug trafficking and any resulting deaths, focusing on the trafficker,” the OPP concluded.
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