More guns on Hamilton streets an ‘alarming’ trend
Just before 1:30 a.m. on the first Monday of January, Hamilton police pulled over a car on Barnesdale Avenue North.
What started as a routine traffic stop ended with police finding a loaded 9 mm handgun.
Ten days later, on Jan. 13, police out on patrol stopped another car at Birge Street and Victoria Avenue North. The grey Toyota Camry had been reported stolen. Inside the car police found drugs and a loaded shotgun.
A week after that, on Jan. 20, another traffic stop and police found a loaded Smith and Wesson handgun.
These gun seizures during traffic stops are part of a growing and concerning trend of more guns on Hamilton streets, police say. Last year, Hamilton police seized 204 guns, including 106 semi-automatic handguns. This is a 13 per cent increase over 2020.
Hamilton police are on average seizing a gun about every 42 hours, said Deputy Chief Ryan Diodati. He called the proliferation of guns alarming."
It's not clear why there are more guns on city streets, only that there appears to be a bigger demand for them, and more people willing to use them.
Last year also saw a record 19 homicides. This includes eight people killed in shootings, six of whom were under 25 years old, the real startling statistic" he said.
More and more, police are seeing younger people, most often teen boys and young men, not only having access to guns but carrying them. Young people carry guns for protection and bravado.
Many of the 36 shootings last year happened in broad daylight, some on busy streets. That number was down from 51 shootings in 2020 - a year that saw a spike of 21 shootings between September and December alone.
Diodati described the shootings as targeted, but also crimes of opportunity. Perpetrators carrying guns often shoot without thinking when they see someone perceived as an enemy or target, running the risk of hitting a bystander.
Sixty per cent of the shootings happened within the area bound by the Red Hill Valley Parkway, Lincoln Alexander Parkway, Highway 403 and Lake Ontario. Diodati said this is not meant to stigmatize any area, it just shows that most shootings happen in that part of Hamilton.
When Diodati started his career 25 years ago, finding a gun at a traffic stop was a bit of an anomaly," but now it happens often.
Most often it's a semi-automatic handgun and most often fully loaded and ready to go," he said.
The incident might begin with a driver being pulled over for speeding, a burnt-out headlight or any other offence under the Highway Traffic Act. But once the vehicle is stopped perhaps officers smell marijuana, or see something in the car.
Officers, have come under scrutiny for traffic stops that lead to drug or gun seizures in the past, including a case where a judge found Hamilton police racially profiled two man acquitted of gun charges. However it begins, the incident must be a legitimate stop, otherwise the courts can dismiss any charges, no matter what police find.
Diodati said officers are trained to spot the characteristics of an armed person, including clues in body language. This might include someone moving their body to block the view of the glove box or console when they reach to grab their identification, or not swinging their arms while walking in order to hide a gun concealed in their waistband.
Depending on the circumstances, police might have grounds to search a person on the spot, or they might need to apply for a warrant to search the vehicle. Police have also increasingly been finding hidden compartments for storing guns and drugs in vehicles. Very often, drugs go along with the guns.
Once a gun is seized, it is analyzed, including ballistics testing, and the origin of the gun is traced. The goal is to see whether the gun was used in any crime; sometimes weapons are traced to more than one crime.
About 85 per cent of the guns Hamilton police seize come from the United States, Diodati said. Travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic has done nothing to stem the flow of illegal guns being smuggled across the border.
Last year, a four-month special project targeting gun and drug activity in Hamilton, called Project Strong, led police to seize 23 guns. They arrested 112 people and seized almost 1,000 rounds of ammunition and drugs.
That investigation took a significant amount of drugs and guns off the streets, but at a cost to the service. Diodati said they had to take officers away from other divisions, meaning that quality of life" calls about issues such as trespassing a graffiti had to take a back seat."
Enforcement is an important part of combating gun violence, he said, but it's not the only solution. Police also want to look at prevention, especially to help young people get out of a criminal lifestyle.
We know we can't do that alone," Diodati said.
He pointed to partnerships with the YMCA for their youth engagement program and John Howard Society's youth navigation program, funded through policing grants.
Police also just applied for a $500,000 grant for another collaboration with the John Howard Society, for a youth outreach program called SLIVER (street level violence intervention and response).
Many of the shootings come from what police call disorganized crime." The young people involved don't pledge allegiance to a street gang for life - instead, their associates are constantly changing. Diodati said there are cases where young men were friends a month ago and now killing each other."
In November, the province announced $75.1 million over three years to fight gun and gang violence. Diodati said Hamilton police are looking into what that might mean for resources here. This includes working with Ontario Provincial Police to look at joining provincial teams, with an emphasis on analytics.
The proliferation of guns is a problem across Ontario, with criminals and groups moving between cities, so it makes sense to have a more strategic approach.
We know these criminals don't have borders," Diodati said.
Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com