A small number of Toronto police officers began placing semi-automatic assault rifles in select patrol cars this week, in a move meant to give officers more rapid access to heavy firepower when dealing with serious incidents.
Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash told CTV News Tuesday that three cars in each of the city’s 17 divisions will have access to the Colt Canada C8 Carbine, which is similar in structure to the rifles used by the Canadian Forces during the war in Afghanistan.
Pugash told CTV News the rifle is a “weapon for today’s circumstances,” when officers are occasionally confronted with suspects brandishing handguns with high-capacity magazines, submachine guns or worse. Police tweeted Wednesday that an increasing number of suspects are wearing body armour, which can be difficult to penetrate with a handgun.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Police Chief Mark Saunders said the carbines will be used in conjunction with new "sock guns," or shotguns modified to shoot kevlar-wrapped bean bags that do not pierce the skin. These new "sock guns" are meant to replace conventional shotguns used by police.
He added that police seized 11 machine guns in the city last year, and those situations can require that officers have more firepower than just a handgun.
"We have to have an opportunity of making sure officers have an ability to have that distance and have that accuracy and have the ability to contain someone that may have a long weapon in their possession."
Saunders said the carbines are much more accurate than a handgun or a shotgun, and will allow officers to engage suspects from further away.
"It has less penetration capabilities, it has the ability to be used by more officers because people that are smaller can use it better and more accurately than a shotgun," he said.
The move to equip and train frontline officers with assault-style rifles has swept through the province, with patrol officers in police services in Peel, Durham, York and Waterloo regions, as well as the Ontario Provincial Police and select RCMP units now carrying the weapons.
Toronto police expect to have the rifles fully installed in patrol cars by June.
Speaking in Durham Region on Wednesday, Premier Kathleen Wynne said she is not an expert on police equipment and tactics, and added "police need to be prepared" for the few incidents that arise in which lethal force is necessary.
"Most interactions between police and citizens are not violent, but then there are those situations that are and police need to be prepared for those in order to keep themselves and citizens safe."
Toronto police say they conducted a pilot project to test the placement of the rifles in patrol cars back in 2013. Officers in 43, 31 and 51 divisions participated in the pilot project.
Saunders dismissed the claim that having front-line patrol officers carry the carbines could endanger public safety.
"I'm not sure what the argument is. Is the argument that I’m introducing a lot more less-lethal use of force out there with the officers and our lethal capabilities are going to be a lot more accurate, and there’s a complaint on that?”
He said any officer that wishes to use the new rifles will have to complete a 10 hour per day, four day-long course on how to use them, along with annual re-qualifications.
