A Toronto police insider says consequences must be greater for those who repeatedly engage in car thefts and carjackings.
Speaking exclusively to True North as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre makes a series of announcements to clamp down on the car theft crisis, the police officer says one big problem is that our lawmakers are looking at it as a “property crime” and not “organized crime.”
Toronto police brass will be speaking at a Liberal summit on car theft and organized crime called for Thursday in Ottawa.
Polievre has vowed, if elected prime minister, to strengthen enforcement around car thefts and oversight of what gets shipped from the port of Montreal.
As the Conservative leader pointed out, quite rightly, insurance claims have skyrocketed as a result of the burgeoning car thefts, forcing up rates in Canada.
The Toronto Police Service insider says 50% of car thefts are carried out by young offenders. Some 40% of those young offenders are out on releases.
There have to be harsher consequences, beyond catch and release, because there’s “huge money to be made” by these kids, who can steal up to four cars a night and make from $500 to $1,500 per car.
Unlike traditional crime syndicates, this is all done on apps on the “dark web” and two guys will show up at an innocent homeowner’s address to steal a car, the insider says.
Someone else is told on an app to deliver it to the port of Montreal for shipping, often to Africa.
”It’s very complicated because of the technology and the dark web,” he says.
They need to have greater consequences at the front end by calling it an organized crime and ensuring better oversight of the shipments, says the insider.
Add to this the Toronto Police Service response times, which give the thief time to come back and retrieve the cellphone he dropped on the driveway and attack the homeowner.
Right now they’re between 19 and 22 minutes for Priority 1 calls – the most serious calls where one’s life is in danger, he says.
“(Priority 1 calls involve) anything life-threatening or where your life is in danger,” he says.
“It’s the dilemma we’re in…it’s just ridiculous,” he says, referring to the 2024 budget which doesn’t even give the TPS budget an inflationary increase.
According to recent reports, violent crime was up 18% in Toronto in 2023. Hate crimes alone spiked 42% in 2023 compared to the year before.
The force is down an average of 600 officers compared to 2010 with an influx of 600,000 more people, including illegal migrants and asylum seekers encouraged to take up residence in the Sanctuary City.
The cop insider says police told Toronto city councillors during recent budget deliberations the average response times in each of their wards – including budget chief Shelley Carroll’s ward, where it is up to 30 minutes.
But the attitude, including from the legacy media, is that police are “fear mongering.”
He also told True North they’ve attended 493 (largely anti-Israel) protests since Oct. 7 and have racked up $8.5-million in extra costs.
