Chief Myron Demkiw told our gathering how crime is down significantly across Toronto.
True or false? Compared to other cities, large and small, in Canada and across North America, Toronto is a safe city. Period. Incidents of crime fluctuate year to year but will always be with us no matter how many police officers we add to the budget. And crime solutions best rest with the people, not the police.
True. True. And true.
Another truth is that residents will be fearful and believe crime is on the increase and danger is very near – no matter what the statistics show. It’s just that the expressions of such fears grow louder during the inevitable waves of crime.
Police Chief Myron Demkiw brought good news to Scarborough residents attending my Safety Town Hall and public meeting at the Scarborough Civic Centre last week. In fact, the news was good for the entire city.
Crime is down significantly across Toronto, the chief told scores of residents gathered to get an update on the state of the city as it relates to crime and safety. The residents didn’t yawn at the news, but they didn’t break out in applause either.
It’s almost as if Chief Demkiw was delivering stale news, albeit good news. After all, what does one say about one’s fear of crime and one’s sense of feeling unsafe when the top crime fighter says, in effect, “move along, folks; nothing to see here.”
“In 2025, homicides were down 47 per cent from the 85 killings in 2024. The number was cut nearly in half, down to 45. Incidents of shootings and firearms discharges dropped 43 per cent.”
Mayor Olivia Chow spoke just before the chief and stayed for the entire two hours of the town hall to banter with residents. She did take credit for hiring 500 officers a year for five years, hiring community crisis officers to handle mental health calls, and creating teen zones in libraries where youths are distracted from crime by food, video games, arts and crafts and, who could imagine, homework club.
Yes, the tow truck industry seems embroiled in a major conflict that sees trucks torched regularly. Gunmen taking pot shots at residential homes in what police say are targeted and not random attacks, seem to be a thing. Mentally ill riders of the TTC are known to hurl invectives at commuters, leaving them troubled if not traumatized. And close partner violence is always in play.
But most of us get to our places of work and play and leisure with little obvious negative interactions with the criminals among us. In fact, police are warning us more about the rise in “distraction theft” – where the person engages you in disarming conversation or activity while robbing you blind – than incidents of random violence.
The criminals are out there and the news loop on CP24 will remind you every 15 minutes that a shooting or stabbing or car theft or hit-and-run or home invasion occurred.
But Chief Demkiw’s opening words after Mayor Chow spoke was this: In 2025, homicides were down 47 per cent from the 85 killings in 2024. The number was cut nearly in half, down to 45. Incidents of shootings and firearms discharges dropped 43 per cent.
“I am very, very excited about the ongoing decline in the major crime indicators,” Demkiw said.
Auto thefts had a significant jump of 34 per cent, year over year, but the fact that 2024 saw a five-year low in thefts may account for the statistical spike. So, statistics can be manipulated to deliver a wide array of conclusions – absent a total scan of contributing factors.
For instance, incidents of “break and enter” jumped 37 per cent in 41 Division, sparking “grave concerns” among police as 114 incidents were recorded this year up to March 11. A targeted response focussing on commercial and retail establishments netted arrests of 23 persons, police reported. And get this, “two people were responsible for half of the break and enters.”
In other words, it only takes a few to create a perception of widescale insecurity and fear that we are inundated with crime.
People are going to feel the way they feel about crime, no matter what the statistics actually project about community safety. A city can be so safe that it averages only one homicide a year, but if that killing happens on your street or in your neighbourhood your perception of safety is skewed compared to a fellow resident far away from the killing.
The message I received from the Safety Town Hall is that our police are like firefighters busy knocking down outbreaks of criminal activity across the city. Simultaneously, they are now engaged in numerous crime prevention efforts that were once scoffed at as being soft on crime. And, as always, our police best serve and protect us when we are their eyes and ears as community partners.
LeeAnn Papizewski, superintendent of 42 Division, summed it up aptly: Public safety is what we do for each other, not what the police do for you.
