The Toronto police have had success with their retail crime unit, making over 500 arrests and 4,000 charges in two years.

Police have arrested 546 people, laid 4,033 charges, and found over $1.6 million in stolen goods from their investigations.

Chief Myron Demkiw said that retail crime costs Canadian stores billions of dollars each year, hurting the economy and making people feel unsafe.

The police formed a special unit in 2024 to deal with the rise in retail crime in north Etobicoke.

This unit gives stores a direct contact with the police and makes it easier for them to report crimes.

At a news conference, Demkiw talked about some successful investigations, including one that led to 20 arrests and over 400 charges.

Demkiw said that stopping retail crime is important to disrupt organized crime, which uses the money from these crimes to fund other activities.

Supt. Ron Taverner said that organized crime is often connected to retail crime.

Taverner said that stopping retail crime is significant because it stops the sale of stolen goods.

In one case, a group of people went into a store with bags and suitcases and left with them full of stolen goods, which was caught on security video.

The police and the Retail Council of Canada said that the success of the retail crime unit shows that a joint task force is needed.

Rui Rodrigues from the retail council said that there is a trend of increased aggression and violence towards store staff and that retailers, police, and governments need to work together to solve this problem.

Rodrigues wants the Ontario government to lead a joint task force to tackle retail crime.

Global News has asked the solicitor general for a comment on this issue.

Taverner said that addressing the root cause of the problem is important to stop this type of crime.

Taverner said that the root cause of the problem is money, as people make a lot of money from these crimes and use it to fund other organized crime activities.

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