Toronto
Crime

The historically low crime rate in Toronto has resulted in the city having a reputation as one of the safest major cities in North America. For instance, in 2007, the homicide rate for Toronto was 3.43 per 100,000 people, compared with Atlanta (19.7), Boston (10.3), Los Angeles (10.0), New York City (6.3), Vancouver (3.1), and Montreal (2.6). Toronto's robbery rate also ranks low, with 207.1 robberies per 100,000 people, compared with Los Angeles (348.5), Vancouver (266.2), New York City (265.9), and Montreal (235.3). Toronto has a comparable rate of car theft to various U.S. cities, although it is not among the highest in Canada.

In 2005, Toronto media coined the term "Year of the Gun" because of a record number of gun-related homicides, 52 out of 80 homicides in total. The total number of homicides dropped to 70 in 2006; that year, nearly 2,000 people in Toronto were victims of a violent gun-related crime, about one-quarter of the national total. 86 homicides were committed in 2007, roughly half of which involved guns. Gang-related incidents have also been on the rise; between the years 1997 and 2005, over 300 gang-related homicides have occurred. As a result, the Ontario government developed an anti-gun strategy. In 2011, Toronto's murder rate plummeted to 51 murders—nearly a 26% drop from the previous year. The 51 homicides were the lowest number the city has recorded since 1999 when there were 47. While subsequent years did see a return to higher rates, it remained nearly flat line of 57–59 homicides in from 2012 to 2015. 2016 went to 75 for the first time in over eight years. 2017 had a drop off of 10 murders to close the year at 65, with a homicide rate of 2.4 per 100,000 population.

The total number of homicides in Toronto reached a record 98 in 2018; the number included fatalities from the Toronto van attack and the Danforth shooting, which gave the city a homicide rate of around 3.6 per 100,000 people. The record year for murders was previously 1991, with 89, at a rate of 3.9 murders per 100,000 people. The 2018 homicide rate was higher than in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton, New York City, San Diego, and Austin. Homicides in 2019 dropped to 80 (a rate of 2.9 per 100,000 people) below the rate of most US cities, but still higher than the Canadian average of 1.8. Shooting incidents also increased to an all-time high of 492 in 2019, even outpacing gun incidents that occurred in 2018. 2020 saw another decrease in homicides with the city having a total of 71 murders for the year (a rate of around 2.6 per 100,000 people). However, in 2021, the city saw an increase in homicides, with the city murders increasing to 85, giving Toronto a homicide rate of 3.04 per 100,000 people. A decrease in murders happened the following year with 71 being reported in 2022 (a murder rate of 2.5 per 100,000), which was then followed by a slight increase in homicides with 73 being reported in 2023, giving the city a murder rate of 2.6 per 100,000 people, along with a record 12,143 reports of auto theft in the year.
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