Hamilton police launch Project Strong to stop local gangs from attacking each other
Bobby Hristova | CBC News | Posted: January 22, 2021 4:37 PM | Last Updated: January 22, 2021
Hamilton saw 51 shootings in 2020
One month after its debut, Hamilton Police Service's acting chief says a new project to stop targeted retaliation between local gangs has led to 42 people being charged.
Frank Bergen announced Project Strong during a Thursday meeting of city council's general issues committee.
He said the project began in December, and said as of Jan. 21, there have been 372 charges laid, 10 firearms seized, 471 rounds of ammo seized, four other weapons seized, $390,000 worth of cocaine, meth and fentanyl recovered, and more than $63,000 recovered.
It follows a year that saw 51 shootings, a figure higher than the past two years.
Bergen said Deputy Chief Ryan Diodati, along with the operations and investigations side of the service, helped form the initiative.
He said local gangs are travelling across the city to kill each other, highlighting one crime that saw someone travel 13 kilometres from where they lived to kill a rival — despite all the gang members living within the same kilometre.
"We do try to track and we have a correlation between the activities up on the Mountain that do affect the downtown core through their transient movement," he said.
Bergen said the highways in Hamilton allow for gangs to move throughout the city, but said the project accounts for it.
"Project Strong is built on that foundation ... we get to know our players. We are ruthless in hunting them down and making sure they're either complying with their bail conditions, which are precarious at best, but we are making sure we are managing that by being on top of it."
Breaking down Hamilton's 2020 shootings and homicides
Bergen says 2020 saw the highest number of shootings in the past few years with 2018 having 25 shootings and 2019 having 47 shootings.
The 2020 shootings led to 23 victims. Of those, eight people died, three were self-inflicted and one was a "misadventure."
The service saw 17 homicides, a 31 per cent increase from 2019. It also saw 51 shootings and 23 victims. Police seized 169 weapons and say 14 people died in car collisions.
Bergen said of the 17 homicides, 11 have charges laid. He also says seven were shooting victims, eight were stabbing victims, one was the result of a violent incident and one person's remains were found.
Person-in-crisis calls on the rise
Overall, there were 381,000 calls to police in 2020. Of those, 202,900 were 911 calls — a 7.8 per cent increase in the last five years. HPS dispatched officers for service 518,743 times. That number also includes calls by officers.
The service also saw person-in-crisis calls rise by 14.5 per cent over 2019. It saw calls for ambulance assistance climb by 17.7 per cent in the same period.
Bergen said there were 2,549 calls to Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team and the apprehension rate fell from 74.4 to 17 per cent — but that 17 per cent has grown by nearly five per cent since 2017.
He says there were 283 referrals to the Social Navigator program and 2,358 visits from the Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST).
Calls for suspicious activity and domestic violence also saw slight upticks, while reports of car crashes and break and enter calls fell by 23.6 per cent and 15.2 per cent respectively.
How long does it take police to respond?
HPS says the highest priority calls will see officers dispatched in 48 seconds.
It takes officers roughly three minutes and 18 seconds to respond to calls for people in crisis, domestic issues or a disturbance. They take nearly 17 minutes to dispatch for calls about suspicious activity, driving complaints or disturbances.
Calls about trespassing, disorderly conduct or compassionate calls can take roughly two hours and 17 minutes. It takes an hour longer for them to respond to reports of a break and enter, noise complaints or neighbour trouble.