Vancouver police say on average, they solve fewer than half of the premeditated murders in the city. 

Const. Tim Fanning made the comment while discussing the city's latest targeted hit, in which known gang associate Kyle Richard Wong, 20, died in a burst of gunfire from an assault rifle on Saturday night outside his South Vancouver townhouse.

On average, it takes police a year to solve a targeted hit, and generally only 35 to 40 per cent of such crimes get solved, said Fanning.

"The reason they are more difficult is that they are premeditated, that these people do take some time to plan, that they lurk in dark shadows, or they cover themselves from description, try to cover up their tracks as best they can," Fanning said on Monday.

And not all cases that police believe they have solved actually make it to trial, because sometimes there isn't enough evidence for the Crown to approve charges, he said.

In other cases, the suspects themselves can become murder victims, as rival criminals settle their own scores, said Fanning.

Vancouver police say they will release a report in the next few weeks detailing the rate at which they solve gangland murders in the city.

Police across the Lower Mainland have been under fire for not solving a rash of gang-related murders across Metro Vancouver over the past year, and the debate has sparked calls for an integrated police force for the metropolitan area.

Currently the region is divided up among several RCMP detachments and various municipal police forces, which share an integrated homicide investigation team known as IHIT.