After five homicides to date in 2016, Ottawa’s police chief Charles Bordeleau says the recent gang violence in the city is a major concern for the entire community.
There have been 14 shootings in Ottawa this year, including four deaths. The fifth homicide was a stabbing. The events have left family members and neighbourhoods with many unanswered questions concerning these crimes.
In an open letter to Ottawa residents published on the Ottawa Police Service website Wednesday, Bordeleau says there is a clear connection between this violence and the local illegal drug trade.
The high demand for illegal drugs in the capital region has led many street level traffickers to enter a more “high risk world,” writes Bordeleau. In turn, he says, local gangs and others involved in lower-level criminal activity are turning to extreme violence to settle minor disputes.
The Ottawa Police are working alongside community partners – including Crime Prevention Ottawa, The Coalition of Community and Health Resource Centres, the Youth Services Bureau, the John Howard Society and Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization – to find long-term solutions for the escalation of violence happening in the city.
“We need to build on our existing City-Wide Gang Strategy that focuses on programs to dissuade people from violence and gangs, through healthy neighbourhood cohesion, early prevention, intervention, and enforcement,” writes Bordeleau.
Read the full letter on the Ottawa Police Service website: http://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/news/index.aspx?newsId=e52640a1-9de5-44a9-9584-a2448a1b66f1.