Each year, Toronto police seize hundreds of guns off the city's streets — but what happens after these firearms get picked up?

So far this year, police have seized 381 crime guns in 2025, compared to 468 over the same time period in 2024.

CBC Toronto went inside the Toronto Police Service to learn how police process these guns for clues and trace how they got here.

Collecting DNA and fingerprints

The first — and immediate — step is swabbing for DNA and fingerprints so that investigators can search police databases for potential matches

"What we're trying to do is get information out to investigators so that they can action it as quickly as possible," said Insp. Bradley Donais, commander of the forensic identification services unit.

It's a job that's a lot more complicated than its ma

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