As Toronto’s police chief outlined a plan for increased guns and gang enforcement Wednesday, academics and advocates said they continue to be frustrated by what they call a short-sighted approach to the problem.For the second summer in a row, the Toronto Police Service is launching a multimillion-dollar initiative to combat gun violence by putting more resources into on-the-ground policing in problem areas. This time, Chief Mark Saunders said, it’s an 11-week, $4.5-million initiative dubbed “Project Community Space” that will see officers under the direction of the service’s guns and gangs task force conduct intelligence-led work.In the wake of a rash of gun violence in recent weeks — including the fatal shooting Friday of 29-year-old Kevin Reddick — Mayor John Tory announced Monday that municipal, provincial and federal governments would each pledge $1.5 million “to help fund immediate efforts to address the current gun violence.”But researchers say increased policing is not the long-term strategy needed to curb gun violence that has increased since last year, when mounting public pressure led Saunders and Tory announce $3 million to send 200 additional officers to patrol high-risk areas. “It’s just so tiring to repeat the same thing over and over again,” said University of Toronto sociologist Akwasi Owusu-Bempah. He said Saunders and Tory have both said “‘We can’t arrest our way out of these problems’ — and then they promise more money to the police.”Owusu-Bempah said the type of policing proposed may temporarily reduce retaliatory violence, but that some police tactics can also erode confidence in the force.“These are simply short-term approaches and in the long run these are not the solutions to these problems,” he said, likening the policing efforts to putting “Band-Aids on the social wounds” born of social, political and econo ...
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