City council asked to approve $44-million plan to reduce gun violence

Thestar.com
July 23, 2018
Jennifer Pagliaro

City staff have put forward a $44-million, five-year plan to reduce gun violence that would be funded entirely by the federal and provincial governments.

The funds for the new plan have not yet been secured. Council will be asked at a meeting that begins next week to authorize staff to apply for the money from higher-order governments to support both community and city-run programs serving at-risk youth, as well as for the redeployment of officers and new technology.

The plan put forth by city staff Friday is a longer-term strategy than that proposed by Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory in response to a recent wave of gun violence.

The plan proposes $30.3 million in spending on community programs and other interventions with at-risk youth, and $13.5 million on policing and other enforcement activities.

The plan, which came in response to the city’s most recent gun violence, was pitched by Mayor John Tory and police Chief Mark Saunders at a press conference earlier this month as they faced concerns over an uptick in shootings and ongoing criticism from some front-line officers and the association representing them.

While Tory and Saunders originally proposed “up to” $12 million for community programs and “up to” $3 million for enforcement, the staff-proposed plan tabled Friday afternoon proposes a longer-term strategy favouring community supports.

In the short term, the largest share of any available cash --$7.4 million --would be spent on enforcement, including audio technology called ShotSpotter that is said to be able detect the sound of gunshots and report it to police in real time. Another $1 million is planned for community initiatives, including $500,000 to be allocated to established programs serving youth in priority neighbourhoods. Those programs have not yet been identified.

The push for increased surveillance came by way of a last-minute motion from Tory that was added to the agenda of the Toronto Police Services Board meeting on Thursday without community consultation. The $600,000 annual cost to operate the ShotSpotter technology is greater than the one-time allocation to established community groups proposed for this year.

“Mayor Tory believes these initiatives will ensure we are being relentless in addressing some of the causes of crime and addressing crime itself,” his spokesperson, Don Peat, said of the overall plan Friday.

At a separate press conference at city hall about new research on what perpetuates youth violence, the city’s manager for youth development, Stefany Hanson, said Toronto must ensure it is investing in community programs at a “substantive” level.

“The benefit of community investment is really about infrastructure building --creating a web of support, engaging young people at the local levels and enhancing our community partnerships and working with our partners in strategic ways, because we can’t do it by ourselves,” she said.

The federal government is accepting applications for funding under the National Crime Prevention Strategy. A separate fund meant to tackle guns and gangs could provide funding for increased enforcement efforts, city staff believe.

After meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this month, Tory said the federal government appeared ready to respond quickly to Toronto’s needs.

There is currently no alternative plan if the funding doesn’t come through.

Longer-term commitments in 2019 and beyond, if approved, would include $1 million to expand youth recreation spaces and $7.1 million to expand 24-7 coverage by Toronto Community Housing’s community safety officers to 10 “high-risk neighbourhoods.”

A seminal report on the roots of youth violence was prepared by former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry and former provincial cabinet minister Alvin Curling after record levels of violence in 2005, which became known for the “Summer of the Gun.” In 2014, at the urging of Councillor Josh Matlow, the city adopted a youth equity strategy to address the finding that marginalization is, as the report put it, a “key contributing factor to the escalation of youth violence.”

None of the strategies set out in that 2014 plan included increased enforcement or surveillance. It is not clear what the status of those earlier goals are, and city staff were not able to provide answers immediately on Friday.

During the 2016 budget process, Councillor Joe Cressy moved a motion to reduce the Toronto police budget by $220,000 and instead spend the money on a youth equity strategy. The motion passed in a vote of 25 to 17. Tory voted against it.