Progress made in curbing gun violence, police say

Edmonton police is on target with its goal of reducing violent firearm incidents and firearm injuries from last year.

But acting police chief Kevin Brezinski has sounded a note of caution.

“I think time will tell,” he said. “I think it’s not true to say that we’ve solved this problem overnight. I think we have to monitor it moving forward.”

The Edmonton Police Service saw 212 violent firearm incidents this year, marking a 21.8-per-cent reduction from the same period last year. Police also saw a 5.2-percent decrease in firearm injuries from the same period last year. Occurrences of robbery with a firearm dropped from 51 in the first quarter of 2016 to 38 in the same time in 2017. The number of times where EPS responded to a weapons complaint dropped to 148 in the first quarter of 2017, a 13-per-cent reduction from 170 in the first quarter of 2016.

Firearms are defined as handguns, fully automatic guns, rifle or shotguns, sawed-off rifles or sawed-off shotguns.

Between 2012 and 2015 the city saw an 80 per cent increase in the use of guns in crimes, according to the third quarter of the 2017 annual policing plan. Officers saw firearms being seized at vehicle stops and when executing search warrants. During that time home invasions involving firearms were also on the rise.

It was then that Edmonton police introduced a violence reduction strategy where they worked with Alberta Justice to decrease gun violence through a “focused risk based response.”

EPS developed a multi-pronged strategy to deal with this increase in gun violence.

This included drawing up a map of all local hot spots, which see specific and persistent crime involving firearm violence. Hot spots would see proactive patrolling by police. The strategy also identified offenders with gun-related crimes and checked in with these offenders regularly.

Brezinski said some of the crime reduction strategies include working proactively in the community. When police receive information about people who are in possession of firearms, then investigators and members of the gang unit get involved and arrest people with firearms when it fits the parameters.

A turning point in reducing gun violence was the case of Jonathan Ricardo Henry, who pleaded guilty in October, 2016, to several charges related to possession of firearms.

An Oct. 30, 2014, search warrant that was executed at an apartment found five semi-automatic firearms and ammunition in addition to drugs and paperwork related to drug trafficking.