With just days to go before the halfway point of 2018, Toronto Police have confirmed at least48 homicideswithin the city since January 1. That's more than double the 23 we'd seen last year at this point.

Five people were killed last weekend alone — four of them by guns — prompting both Police Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory to express public concern over a recentspike in shooting deaths.

"The incidents of gun violence we have seen in our city in the past few days are shocking and can in no way be accepted or brushed aside," said Mayor Tory late last month following arash of high-profile killings.

“市长,我受到的暴力行为in our city regardless of where it happens."

I'm pretty sure Toronto is gonna break a murder record set in 1991 anyways (when it endured 89 murders). The earliest time when the city had 48 murders in 1991 was on July 1st.#TorontoStronghttps://t.co/i8v78fIyiv

— StopTorontoGunViolence! (@GunToronto)June 26, 2018

'Summer of the gun' part IIor not, innocent people are being slayed on the streets of Toronto at random, en masse, and firearms are only part of the problem.

Ten people在4月被杀when a rental van plowed through crowds of pedestrians on Yonge Street. Alek Minassian, 25, isfacing ten counts of first-degree murderand 16 of attempted murder in connection with the incident.

Just last week, a 73-year-old man died after a stranger allegedlypushed him into the path of an oncoming subway trainat Bloor-Yonge Station.

Then there's the horrifying case of allegedToronto serial killer Bruce McArthur, who's been charged with eight counts of murder since January, when policefound six sets of human remainsin planters at a property he had landscaped.

It's been a heavy year for high-profile murders, and many in Toronto are growing concerned about what this means for our city's safety.

Several keen observers havetaken note在最近几周thatToronto's homicide rate is now higher than New York City's— and this does, indeed, appear to be the case.

The TPS Major Crime Indicators database shows that homicides are atypically high this year to date compared against the three years previous. Image viaToronto Police Service.

The Toronto Police Service'spublic data portalshows 47 cases of homicide in 2018 as of Sunday night, when it was last updated.

University of Toronto Associate Professor of Criminology Scot Wortley, an expert in crime statistics, says that, based onan estimated population of 2.93 million, Toronto has a current crime rate of 1.67 per 100,000 people.

New York City, which has an estimated population of 8.62 million, had seen 130 homicides at the same point, according tothe NYPD's CompStat crime data portal.

Wortley says this would put New York's homicide rate at 1.51 per 100,000 people.

The New York Police Department's CompStat tool provides real time access to crime data, similar to Toronto's public data portal.Image via NYPD.

"So yes — Toronto is slightly higher than NYC," says Wortley. "However, these homicide rates are far lower than other major U.S. and Canadian cities."

He highlights Chicago, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Winnipeg and Regina as just a few of examples of cities with more murders-per-capita than ours.

It's also of note that NYC has seena marked decrease in its overall crime rateover the past few years. So... take this little factoid with a grain of salt.

And you don't have to freak out too much over the spike in shootings just yet, says Saunders.

"Historically, when it comes to gun play in the city, there are peaks and valleys, and when we hit those peaks everybody gets alarmed, and then it calms down,"said the police chief in an interviewon Monday.

"During those moments where the peaks are occurring, we have to remember what the patterns have been telling us, year after year."