Lurking beneath Toronto’s 61 homicides in 2017 — a drop from last year’s 73 but about average over the past two decades — is the continuing troubling trend of declining clearance rates. Article Continued BelowDuring the 1980s and early ’90s, police solved between 85 and 95 per cent of homicides a year. Low clearance rates, especially connected to gang-related homicides, is not unique to Toronto and is a phenomenon experienced by police forces throughout North America. “I’ve had homicide cases where I’ve had the entire street gang in court every day giving cut eye to the witnesses.”It’s not an unwarranted fear. There are other explanations for the lower clearance rate for gun and gang crime.

Source: thestar January 01, 2018 10:52 UTC