Police arrest 114 in anti- gang investigation

Toronto TT force touts ‘ evolved’ approach in fight against street crime

Typically, TT the Toronto police conducted massive street gang sweeps ss in May or June, with scores of officers participating in pre- dawn raids, kicking down doors and rounding up dozens of suspects to be taken to jail and court.

After that there would be a press conference at headquarters, with members of the Toronto police command team detailing the case from behind tables displaying firearms, cash and aa bags of narcotics such as cocaine and, in more recent

years, fentanyl.

That didn’t happen this year. But on Thursday, with gun violence in the city on track to surpass last year’s record- breaking pace, Toronto police, along with representatives from the OPP and other GTA forces, held a news conference to announce the tt fight against street gangs isn’t over — but it has “evolved.”

While the old approach responded to media and public pressure to find an expedient solution to gun and gang- related crime — and was an arguably effective way to quiet things down in the short term — it failed to address the potential causes the growing violence.

Police were also criticized for casting too wide a net, arresting bit players and exacerbating already existing tensions between police and racialized communities.

So instead of a single- day blitz, officers from Toronto’s integrated guns and gang unit, along with officers from the Ontario Provincial Police, York, Peel, Durham, Waterloo and Thunder Bay police services, have spent 12 months quietly dismantling a province- wide gun, gg gang, drug and human traf- f ficking operation, explained Dept. the Toronto Chief police Myron director Demkiw, of specialized operations. “With the understanding of the tt social cost in our communi- ties when dozens of police converge on a singular neighbourhood … our efforts this past year were ww done with minimal dis- r ruption to the majority of lawabiding residents,” Demkiw said. Search warrants were executed “based on detailed evidencebased intelligence and executed with precision and extreme professionalism.” Project Sunder started in September 2019 and once it is complete, 114 people will face approximately 800 charges relating to gang activity including murder, firearms offences, drug and human trafficking in areas from Toronto to Thunder Bay.

What began as a local investigation gg into a dangerous street gang West WW Crips known turned as the into Eglinton a multijurisdictional project involving arrests in 15 different cities, Demkiw Sunder has explained. significantly “Project disrupted the criminal operations and hierarchy of the Eglinton

West Crips gang.” Thirty- one firearms were seized, including four over- capacity magazines, in addition to kilograms kk of cocaine, fentanyl and a crystal meth and $ 300,000. “This particular investigation clearly demonstrates how GTA- based street gangs have influence across Ontario, from Ottawa many places to Thunder in between,” Bay said and OPP Chief Supt. Paul Mackey. Unlike previous gang projects, officials did not release a list of those charged — they insisted, however, that the gang’s leaders have been arrested.

In an interview with the Star, interim Toronto police Chief Jim Ramer echoed what he told the civilian police board last week, ww that the TPS has adopted an aa “enhanced gang- prevention strategy” that is a “fundamental change” cc from what existed be- f fore.

“We’re doing it differently … ( in a way that’s) much more surgical and precise so we make sure that we’re targeting the worst ww“We’re of not the going offenders,” in and he sort said. of taking over a community, and disenfranchising them, marginalizing gg them, we wanted to get away from that.”

The approach is multi- faceted and aa also involves the creation of “neighbourhood teams” that will ww work with police. It’s “part of the evolving process to actually aa do it better, really help the community.”