Mayors in Peel Region are calling for provincial support to install more cameras along highways 410 and 403 following a brazen shooting on Oct. 22 that killed one man and injured two others near Derry Road.
“Gangs don’t recognize postal codes. They don’t care about municipal jurisdiction and I need the senior levels of government to step up,” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown told Global News.
“We’ve got these Toronto-based gangs that now have memberships across the GTA.
“It’s not strictly a Toronto problem, it’s a GTA problem.”
Members of the Peel Regional Police Services Board have put a motion forward asking the provincial government for approval and funding of CCTV cameras along highways 410 and 403 within the Region of Peel.
The motion passed unanimously and will be sent off to Queen’s Park for review.
The moves comes as a response to a rash of gun violence along 400-series highways — since the fall of 2018 there have been four shootings on the 410 alone.
“We need to work together and be innovative in efforts to tackle crime,” Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said.
“We’ve seen an uptick in violent crime in and along the 410 and 403 highways with criminals exiting these areas undetected. CCTV cameras would not only deter gang behavior along these routes, but give police the evidence they need to pursue and convict criminals.”
In August, the federal government dolled out $54 million to Ontario to fight guns and gangs and Brown suggests this project could benefit from that grant.
The province would have to sign off on allowing additional cameras, as those highways are provincially owned.
“I don’t care who does it. I don’t care which government steps up to the plate, but I’m tired of announcements,” Brown said.
He said too much of the focus has solely been on Toronto in the fight against gun violence.
“I’m losing patience. I want to actually see the police have the resources and the tools to do their job,” he said.