Ottawa’s police chief has reassigned as many as 12 officers to his force’s Guns and Gangs unit in response to the growing number of shooting incidents in the city.
The deployment comes in advance of a meeting this week between Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, Chief Charles Bordeleau and police board chair Eli El-Chantiry to discuss what could be a record year for gunfire.
Most of the 42 shooting incidents in Ottawa so far this year appear connected to gangs, and have ranged from reports of shots being fired to young men showing up at hospitals with bullet wounds.
The total compares with 49 incidents in all of 2014.
El-Chantiry said the additional officers will come from other departments within the force.
“It is within the chief’s purview to deploy officers and this reassignment of personnel did not require board clearance or approval. It will not affect the budget,” he said.
Watson, who asked for this week’s meeting, has said the gang-related violence is one reason he supports the Ottawa force’s request to hire as many as 25 new officers in 2016. Earlier this year the city pledged $300,000 annually to fund a “gang exit strategy” that is being devised by the John Howard Society and Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization.
According to El-Chantiry, two police officers from each of the force’s East, West and Central divisions will be reassigned to the Guns and Gangs unit, which has eight detectives. Members of the Direct Action Response Team (DART), which includes five constables and a sergeant, have already been temporarily reassigned to the Guns and Gangs investigative team.
