EDMONTON — Edmonton’s police chief wants more resources — enough for possibly 100 new officers — to fight the city’s record homicide rate.
Edmonton has 40 homicides on the books this year, surpassing the city’s record of 39 in 2005. It also has the highest homicide numbers in the country: Toronto has 37, Winnipeg 32 and Vancouver 11.
Edmonton’s latest homicide victim, 35-year-old Daniel Hamer, was found beaten to death Saturday in a boarded-up house downtown.
On Tuesday morning, the bodies of two men were found inside a vehicle parked at a southside cemetery. Their deaths are considered suspicious and have not yet been recorded as homicides.
“We are stretched to capacity,” Police Chief Rod Knecht told reporters later Tuesday, adding officers have been pulled from robbery, patrol, traffic and sex assault units to help investigate homicides this year.
“It’s always frustrating when we get a homicide. I mean, we’re trying to prevent homicides best we can, and we know that’s almost an impossible task.”
That’s why Knecht teamed up two months ago with Mayor Stephen Mandel to launch a long-term strategy to try to curb the crimes behind the homicides. The three-to-five year plan involves community police teams, additional social workers, family violence prevention and support for the homeless and immigrants.
No price-tags were mentioned but Mandel said he would be asking for some cash from the province.
Knecht said Tuesday he has no idea how much he’ll need for 100 new full-time officers, but said they would be dedicated to investigating homicides and helping with the new strategy. His announcement came the day before Alberta’s new premier, former justice minister Alison Redford, is to name her new cabinet.
Knecht said the strategy seems to be working so far because overall, violence in the city dipped in September.
And he likes to think the city has not yet broken its homicide record. He says because two of the homicides happened in the previous two years, but were not solved until 2010, there are technically 38 criminal deaths so far this year.
Knecht said 65 per cent of this year’s homicide cases have been solved, but some will need to be investigated well into 2012.
In most cases, the victims knew their killers and drugs and alcohol were factors, he said.