WRPS chief wants cross-jurisdiction policing plan amid gun violence

Waterloo region's police chief is calling for improvements to cross-jurisdiction policing after a spate of gun violence.

Waterloo Regional Police Service is investigating a number of serious gun crimes over four days, including a homicide and a shooting at a shopping plaza where 30 shots were fired into a Subway restaurant, striking one person and injuring two others.

Police Chief Bryan Larkin said resources were "pushing capacity," but that officers were working with multiple other police services on a number of leads.

Larkin said officers believe the Subway shooting had ties to organized street crime, but said some of the 12 people in the restaurant at the time of the shooting were innocent bystanders.

"I'm outraged that this would transpire in our community. It's not something we should accept as normal," he said.

The man that was hit was from Toronto and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

In 2018, WRPS responded to 31 firearm incidents. That's up significantly from previous years. In 2014 through to 2017, there were between 17 and 22 firearm calls; 2013, however, saw 29 gun-related incidents.

"If we look at the nexus of the GTA, what we're seeing is a propensity for violence we haven't seen in the past," he said. "We aren't sure why this occurring."

Larkin said they are routinely seeing "significant connections" to the Peel, Toronto and York areas, as well as Hamilton and Brantford.

'Need to put policing plans in place'

The nearby cities of Brantford and Hamilton are also dealing with a spike in gun violence.

Brantford set up a task force on April 9, with a special focus on gun-related crime.  The community has had 16 gun-related incidents since January, including eight shootings — one, a homicide.

Hamilton is also enduring a surge in shootings. So far this year, there have been 20 shootings in Hamilton and two deaths as a result.

"We also have to look at, how do we re-engineer policing provincially? Particularly in the Greater Toronto Area. We're seeing investigations that cross borders significantly — the impact of what's happening in the Greater Toronto Area," he said. "We need to put policing plans in place."

He said there have been recent changes to provincial funding of police, which amount to a small portion of the WRPS's total budget, but could affect multi-jurisdictional policing.

Larkin said he will know more about that in May.

In the meantime, the WRPS is urging anyone with information about the recent shootings in Cambridge and Waterloo to come forward.

They would also like tips in an April 20 crash that seriously injured two people.

In that case, police were responding to gunfire at King Street N. and Hickory Street in Waterloo, when an officer was involved in a crash with two people. The Ontario Special Investigation Unit is involved in that investigation, but police are still investigating the gunfire report that preceded it.

Anyone with information on any of the incidents is urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.