Gun violence in metropolitan Toledo is out of control. But solutions are highly complicated and will take years to implement.

This year, there were more than 120 shootings in Toledo between early June and mid-November, despite a police crackdown over the summer that resulted in 891 arrests and 36 gun seizures between June 28 and Sept. 1.

Although the total number of slayings in Toledo isn't far off from previous years, more have involved guns. The gun-homicide rate in 2011 might surpass the 2007 record of 77 percent.

The problem is not confined to seedy neighborhoods inhabited by drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, and thieves, nor will it go away on its own. Budgetary crisis or not, city leaders must confront this issue with urgency and resolve.

Newly installed Toledo Police Chief Derrick Diggs recently suggested that the city install a closed-circuit system of 75 surveillance cameras to keep an electronic eye out for illegal activity in high-crime neighborhoods. The idea is similar to the concept behind red-light cameras: use electronics to augment police efforts in places where it no longer is practical to have cops on duty.

Many questions will arise from the $1.2 million proposal, from the choice of neighborhoods to how the information will be used. It's a gutsy move, one that deserves to be probed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and others as a potential Big Brother tactic that could infringe on civil rights.

Yet it might work. Chief Diggs should be encouraged by Mayor Mike Bell and Toledo City Council to continue to examine this and other ideas.

Toledo also should explore crime-prevention programs such as Chicago's CeaseFire, in which street-savvy people are recruited and trained as "interrupters" to help diffuse tensions between gangs. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, CeaseFire decreased shootings in Chicago by at least 16 to 35 percent per sector over a three-year period.

Chief Diggs said he is aware of that research. He has a program he intends to unveil in the spring based on research by David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, Robin Engel of the University of Cincinnati, and Morris Jenkins of the University of Toledo. Chief Diggs is developing a systematic approach to fighting crime.

This fall, Mayor Bell created Coalition for Hope, a program to unite community leaders and residents against youth violence. He should not stop there.

Mayor Bell could seek a more prominent role with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a nationwide group that pushes for tougher laws on illegal gun sales and ownership. Albert Earl, a Toledo consultant who works for at-risk youths through an annual conference called Restoration of the Village, says authorities should focus more where guns come from. He also implored men to be more responsible for the young men they fathered.

The roots of gun violence are more complex than just the availability of guns and the absence of fathers. Gun violence also stems from a sense of desperation and hopelessness, exacerbated by a wicked recession.

The challenge is a mighty one, but gun violence cannot be allowed to continue. Public officials, educators, and business and community leaders in northwest Ohio must rally around this issue.

First Published December 18, 2011, 5:00 a.m.