The announcement comes just days after Chief Blair met with the mayor and premier to discuss what can be done to prevent more gun violence.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford asked for the meeting following a mass shooting at an east-end community party that killed two people and injured at least 20 last week.
The city was already reeling from two other deadly public shootings — one at the Eaton Centre shopping mall and another on a crowded patio in the Little Italy neighbourhood.
Supported by about 2,000 civilian staff, the uniformed strength of the Toronto police currently comprises roughly 5,500 officers, a number that is slowly shrinking as the result of attrition and a hiring freeze.
Chief Blair’s plan comes on the heels of a pledge by the provincial government earlier this week for $12.5-million in new funding to help combat gun violence.
Those funds were announced by Premier Dalton McGuinty after a meeting with Chief Blair and Mr. Ford, following the Scarborough shooting.
While crime generally continues to drop in Canada’s largest city, the number of shooting incidents has spiked sharply upward this year.
The infusion of provincial money will provide permanent funding of $5-million a year for the TPS’s Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy, which dispatches police to high-crime neighbourhoods to seize guns, make arrests and build connections with locals.
The government is also providing permanent funds for a similar provincial program.
Funding for both programs had been set to expire this year.
Original Article
Source: the globe and mail
Author: CP
The one thing we are not hearing nearly enough is increase in funding for community outreach and community building, but too much about police action, gang busting, and 'Rambo' politics in general, as if the problem of crime is that some people simply have criminal minds.
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