Article content
London police soon will have a new tool to help combat gun violence and prevent crime, the city’s top cop says.
Ontario’s solicitor general announced this week several police forces now have access to a database sharing real-time information about people out on bail or under release conditions for gun-related offences. Guelph and a handful of Toronto-area forces now use the Ontario Provincial Police-managed compliance dashboard.
Article content
London police officers will have access to the dashboard, available via cellphones and computers, early this year, Chief Thai Truong said.
“We now will be able to identify and have information of individuals living in this community or staying in this community that are on charges for firearms-related offences,” Truong said.
“So that allows us to conduct bail compliance checks. That gives us intelligence . . . and ultimately that information supports us to make the community safer and to prevent crime and to address . . . gun violence.”
London police always have had access to information about local residents’ release conditions, but getting details about people charged outside the city who may have moved to London, often to live with a surety, had to be requested.
“That has always been an issue,” Truong said. “But with this provincial dashboard, once all police services are on-boarded . . . it allows for seamless transfer of information and situational awareness.”
The technology – part of a $112-million provincial effort to strengthen bail monitoring and enforcement of high-risk and repeat violent offenders – will be made available to all police forces in phases, the province said.
Article content
The head of the Police Association of Ontario called the dashboard a “significant step forward” in boosting public safety.
“The dashboard will lead to increased collaboration between police services throughout the province and give more information to police service members to better protect our communities,” association president Mark Baxter said in a statement. “Initiatives like this demonstrate a commitment to community safety and the importance of supporting front-line officers in their efforts to keep our communities safe.”
Truong singled out cracking down on gun violence as a top priority when he became chief 18 months ago.
Last year, there were 14 cases of gunfire in the city, down from 28 the year before. People from outside London, mostly from the Greater Toronto Area, have been charged in a handful of those cases.
Most recently, an 18-year-old Brampton resident was charged with attempted murder and other offences in a Dec. 14 shooting outside the emergency room at Victoria hospital and another shortly before in the city’s south end.
The accused, Doneil Josiah Levy-Porter, was already in custody facing charges in connection with an armed home invasion in Vaughan and a gunpoint bank robbery in Markham. He was under release conditions for unrelated charges at the time of his arrest last Friday, York Regional police said.
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network
