A grim picture is emerging of the state of Intimate Partner Violence in Toronto, and for the first time, police are releasing case data dating back more than a decade.More than 20,000 reports related to family and intimate partner violence were made to Toronto police last year – a rate that’s been steady over the last decade. “One of the key things you’ll note is the volume of these incidents,” said Ian Williams, the Director of Information Management with Toronto police, who noted that this type of data will help inform training and awareness campaigns.“There’s a number of ways that this data is used, and this would show up from a corporate strategy resource allocation perspective, right to local divisions and local neighborhood officers being assigned.”The new police data also highlights the top five neighbourhoods which had the highest IPV rate per 100,000 residents. Last year, Weston topped the list with 284 incidents reported, followed by Black Creek, Weston-Pelham Park, New Toronto and Beechborough-Greenbrook. All five neighbourhoods are from police divisions in the city’s west-end that are part of the Safe TO program. Community agencies are applauding the move by Toronto police, but say it’s one of many steps that need to be taken.“It drags what’s sort of been lurking in the shadows out into the light and adds data to it, and I think that data is extremely important in getting the government to realize sort of the magnitude of the problem,” said Alexa Barclay with Survivor Safety Matters. Rachel Morrison with the North York Women’s Shelter believes the numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. “The majority of people won’t report their incidents. What we are also seeing is that there are more creative and more insidious ways that perpetrators are carrying out their violence against their victims. There is a lot more use of technology to track locations now in terms of digital stalking and harassment. There are lots of ways that we just haven’t seen in years gone by.”Toronto police say they are taking steps to address the crisis. Every division has now established procedures, and there are domestic violence coordinators who are specifically trained investigators. “What we would like to see next is shelters and other gender-based violence agencies being invited to be more involved in the police response,” said Morrison.The Toronto police data does not include the number of murders connected to Intimate Partner Violence, but across Ontario, at least 35 femicides have been reported since last November, and more than half are connected to IPV or family violence.If you or someone you know is struggling with violence or trauma, a list of services in Canada that offer information, advocacy and counselling can be found here.