KITCHENER -- Cracking down on illicit drugs and illegal firearms will be priorities for regional police in the new year.
That's according to Police Chief Bryan Larkin, who hosted a roundtable discussion on Monday morning that outlined what's to come in 2020.
With one of the biggest issues this year has been gun violence: there were 21 shootings and five homicides.
In each of those incidents, an illegal firearm was used.
Four were targeted and four remain unsolved. The most recent, just over a week ago, involved a 19-year-old man who was shot and killed at a house party on Windale Crescent in Kitchener.
Larkin says most of the criminal activity in the region is due to drugs and violence.
"When you look at the four that remain unsolved the reality is that they all have tentacles to street crime, to potential gang activity, and again those are causes for concern," Larkin said Monday.
When it comes to the unsolved homicides, Larkin says he believes that members of the public could be withholding information that could prove necessary to solving them.
He's urging anyone with information in any of the unsolved crimes in the region this year to come forward.
