Toronto Police and Durham Regional Police Announce First of its Kind Collaboration to Share Firearm Bail Compliance Data
Date: Tuesday, Oct 25, 2022
Unit: Analytics & Innovation
Phone: 4168087986
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) and the Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) are announcing an inter-agency collaboration to share firearm bail compliance data in real time.
Through the shared Firearm Bail Dashboard, both Services are able to share and display each other’s bail offender information on internal dashboards. This innovative approach, the first of its kind in Canada, will help breakdown geographic barriers and ultimately lead to increased officer and community safety. It will also give frontline officers access to real time situational awareness, enabling them to make data driven decisions and assist in effective and objective resource allocation.
In 2021, TPS provided DRPS with access to its Firearm Bail Dashboard, resulting in the identification of over 40 firearm bail offenders residing in Durham Region. To date, there are approximately 1,100 firearm bail offenders displayed on the dashboard, with over 400 bail offenders residing in jurisdictions outside of Toronto.
The capabilities of this application go well beyond bail compliance, and have directly assisted in the identification of several violent offenders. They include an offender wanted in connection with an abduction in York Region; an offender wanted for a homicide in Toronto; and an offender wanted in connection with an armed carjacking - resulting in the recovery of a loaded firearm.
The bail compliance checks also give officers the opportunity to provide bail offenders with referrals to programs, agencies and resources including employment, housing and financial aid.
Please watch the Firearm Bail Dashboard video here for more information.
Benefits of this inter-agency collaboration include:
- Breaking down the jurisdictional barriers that offenders may utilize to their advantage
- Improved officer and community safety
- Fostering a collaborative approach to policing across jurisdictions
- Providing officers with a solution that enables real-time data driven decisions and situational awareness
- Equipping police agencies with a tool for effective and objective resource allocation
- Utilizing bail compliance checks to provide referrals to agencies and programs that can assist in rehabilitating the bail offender and/or anyone living in the household (including the gang exit strategy program, employment assistance, housing and financial aid)
As this project continues to remove the barriers of communication between police agencies, TPS and DRPS are in communication with the law enforcment across Ontario, with a view to expand this initiative province-wide.
To speak to someone about this collaboration, or for more information contact:
Toronto Police Service, Ashling Murphy, corporatecommunications@torontopolice.on.ca
Durham Regional Police Service, Chris Bovie, media@drps.ca.
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Ashling Murphy
