Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair spoke at the Hart House Debates Club about the issue of gun violence in Toronto last week.
“I think violence has caused a great deal of concern in the Toronto community this year,” said Blair. “My officers have never seen so many guns on the street.” Blair blamed gun violence on the lack of rapport between the police and community.
“When there’s a great distance between the police and community, a lack of communication and a lack of trust, those can be unsafe places.”
He also pointed a finger south of the border, where gun laws are lax.
“A great deal of these guns are smuggled in through the U.S.”
Many attending the talk commented on the increased police presence now found in poorer African-Canadian communities, a presence which they said implies mistrust, prejudice, and hostility from the police towards those communities. Blair stressed that his goal was to improve police-community relations.
“It is absolutely critical to our success. It helps us solve crimes. More importantly, it helps us prevent crime. It helps us create an environment where crime is much less likely to occur.”
Blair also commented on why these relations have not been forged in the first place.
“There are a number of reasons for it. There are a lot of new immigrant groups in the area and I don’t think the police worked as hard at making and building that relationship as they needed to. There was too much emphasis on outputs instead of outcomes: police measured how many arrests they made instead of measuring how safe they made the neighbourhood.
“I don’t think this lack of relationship causes the violence, but it does exasperate it.”
