Ottawa police chief speaks out about homicides

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Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Chief Eric Stubbs mentioned town is on observe to succeed in or exceed final 12 months’s murder document of 25 circumstances.

Town has seen 10 homicides in 2025 thus far, 5 of which occurred previously eight days.

Chatting with the Ottawa Citizen on Monday, Stubbs mentioned he’s “100 per cent assured” that each one the homicides are separate incidents, however raised considerations in regards to the uptick in violent crime over the previous few months. That is the primary media look Stubbs has made because the string of homicides previously week.

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“On the tempo that we’re on now … it places us shut or above to the place we had been final 12 months, so it’s regarding,” Stubbs mentioned.

“It’s not only a weapons and gangs battle that has continued all year long or one thing alongside these strains the place we are able to inform the general public that is the development we’re seeing and we as a group need to attempt to tackle it,” he mentioned.

The police chief mentioned the uptick in crime might be as a consequence of a rising inhabitants. About 1,017,449 folks reside in Ottawa, in keeping with the 2021 Census, a rise of virtually eight per cent because the 2016 Census.

The geographical measurement of town additionally makes policing troublesome, he mentioned.

“It’s mentioning the painfully apparent. The larger the inhabitants you could have, the extra points you’re going to have, the extra frequency of crime shall be there — homicides, thefts, and many others.,” Stubbs added.

“It’s to be anticipated, however clearly this can be a little bit of a spike that now we have to attempt to handle.”

Stubbs famous that police are making an allowance for different elements, like relationships and gender-based violence, for among the murder circumstances reported this 12 months. Of the ten homicides, three of them had been categorised as femicides or intimate accomplice violence by police.

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The Ottawa Police Service defines a femicide because the killing of girls and women due to their gender, typically pushed by stereotyped gender roles, discrimination in opposition to girls and women, or unequal energy relations between ladies and men.

“We take each murder extraordinarily severely. It’s essentially the most severe crime that there’s, however when it’s a femicide, there are particular issues that investigators have to contemplate like what relationships are current and what the motivation of the suspect was,” he mentioned.

“That’s actually the place the main focus is, and it will probably assist the investigators, however (femicides are) not taken extra severely, as a result of (homicides) are all taken very severely.”

Stubbs mentioned the OPS is working with group companions to handle gender-based violence and femicides all through town. These group companions typically work with law enforcement officials to assist girls exit violent relationships and educate them in regards to the assets and choices out there.

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“We do have a number of companions on the town, and there’s a number of businesses that work on this business. We depend on them vastly to assist us, to information us, to direct us in a few of our work in the case of violence in opposition to girls,” he mentioned.

“Now we have a number of robust partnerships and we’ll proceed to take action.”

The OPS chief mentioned he plans to develop the murder unit to handle the uptick in violent crime.

“I do know now we have to develop the unit, as a result of this tempo that we’ve seen right here within the final couple years can’t be sustained by that group, so now we have to do extra,” Stubbs mentioned.

OPS can be counting on group policing items to handle crime, he added.

“We do have group policing workplaces all through town. Some get used greater than others, so it’s troublesome. We’re so geographically unfold out that it’s a good suggestion to have totally different touchdown factors round, across the metropolis,” he mentioned.

Anybody with details about the homicides are requested to contact the OPS’ murder unit at 613-236-1222, extension 5493, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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