The Laval City Police Service (SPL) reports a drop in events involving the discharge of a firearm on its territory for a second consecutive year. According to its data, there were half as many in 2023 as the previous year, and three times fewer than in 2021.
More precisely, the Laval police force recorded 13 firearm discharges last year, compared to 24 in 2022 and 43 in 2021.
The “discharge” category includes murders and attempted murders by firearm, as well as events where bullets are fired, which may be at a building or into the air to intimidate.
The year 2023 also saw half as many firearm deaths and murders as in 2022, Laval police also indicate.
She attributes these reductions in particular to an increase in patrol time and police visibility operations in public places as well as in licensed establishments. The contribution of the intelligence services was also very valuable in allowing investigators to intervene in the right places at the right time, explains the SPL.
“We remain cautious, but the declines observed over the last two years are clear proof that the constant diligence of our teams has a notable impact on the ground,” says Jean-François Rousselle, assistant director of the sector, in a press release. criminal investigations.
Additionally, in 2023, 57 firearms were seized and 30 individuals were arrested in Laval as part of Project Paradox, which specifically addresses firearm violence.
“Faced with a phenomenon as volatile as that of urban violence linked to firearms, we must remain alert, active and maintain sustained pressure on criminalized individuals,” adds Mr. Rousselle.
The Laval police also talk about prevention, one of the areas of intervention of the Paradox project “to act upstream of the problems linked to urban violence and allow young people to move away from delinquency”, so that its positive results of 2023 can continue.
“More police officers, more prevention and new ways of doing things. Thanks to the commitment of our Police Department and the additional resources allocated since 2021, the coordinated Paradox project is starting to bear fruit and provide concrete results in our fight against urban violence linked to firearms,” commented for his part the mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, in the same press release.