Gangbusters Up and Running
By 250 News
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 03:52 AM
Prince George, B.C.- It has been a year since the Province announced a string of initiatives to battle gangs and organized crime in B.C. One of those initiatives saw the establishment of a 16 member Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit in Prince George. That unit has already seized numerous firearms, ammunition, explosives, and a 70 plant marijuana grow op run by an organized crime group in Prince George
Solicitor General and Minister responsible for Public Safety, Kash Heed says he is very confident the battle against gang activity in B.C. is making progress “We need to move a lot further than we have in the past, and will continue to move in that direction.”
In the past, it seemed that as soon as one gang was dismantled, another would appear to fill the gap. Such was the case when the Crew was dismantled in Prince George. No sooner was that gang gone, when a new group appeared on the scene, a group which continues to battle with the Independent Soldiers and the Renegades for “turf”. Solicitor General Kash Heed says a new approach to dealing with gang leaders is helping to reduce the number of lieutenants who can start up new organizations “We have managed to take off some key players now when we started to take off those key layers, the void was easily filled, so we started targeting the next level at the same time, so in fact, when we took off one of these key leaders of these gangs that were involved in significant crime, the person who came and filled it out we also took them down too, so the void wasn’t as easily filled. Is there a number of people lined up going to get involved in gangs once we take these people out? Yes. But in order for us to deal with that in a more effective way we have to think long term and we have to think prevention.”
Prevention says Heed, starts with looking at the social conditions that breed these gang members. “What we want to make sure we take a very balanced approach to this, that we have a comprehensive strategy to intervene and suppress and oppress these gangs. At the same time, because the void is so easily filled, what we are focusing on right now is our schools. We are looking at a vulnerable group of individuals through some criteria that’s applied, that are most likely to get involved in gang behaviour. Because all research, many of the relationships that are formed that lead to gang associates and gang members, are formed within our school system, So that’s the key area we’re focusing on right now to identify those individuals who are at risk.” There is a series of programs underway in the Surrey area called the RAP program which looks at identifying at risk youth and intervening in whatever way possible to prevent them from getting involved in gang activity. Coming to Prince George this spring, is the Lion’s Pride program. Announced earlier this month in Surrey, the Lion’s Pride program has members of the B.C. Lions football team making 24 stops at high schools throughout the province highlighting the importance of making positive choices and choosing alternate activities to gang involvement.
“ Where we want to eventually get to is further ahead of the problem. We want to make sure we have comprehensive programs in place that identify some of the negative behaviours and really start to educate our youth at a very young age, even in the elementary schools so these children make the right decisions as they move through their education.” Heed says he would like to see such a program start at grade one and progress with the student through to grade twelve. Heed says this kind of program would help “get ahead of the problem” whether it’s gang, guns, drugs or other deviant behaviour “If we don’t get ahead of it, we will always be reacting to it. We will always be thinking more resources, more resources on the reactionary side versus taking that balanced approach of going in on the prevention side at the same time that we are going in and taking off these major gang leaders and organized crime figures who are operating in our province.”
Heed says the tip line is a very important tool . It handled more than 15 hundred calls between April and October of last year an increase of 28%. “The value that we’ve gained from the tip line is significant, I am committed to that. We’ve had some key pieces of information come into police from individuals.”
Heed wants to go another step, into developing a prevention tip line. He says through his years of experience, education and studies, there are four areas that need attention: First is support at the family level, to ensure families have the food, shelter and support they need so children are not drawn to the what may be perceived to be a lucrative life of crime. Secondly, he says there needs to be good support in the school system. The third component is community support “We have to be sure we have the proper role models and the community is actually engaged in making a difference here.” And the fourth area is the criminal justice system “What we currently do is focus a lot of our efforts on the criminal justice system, and we don’t focus as much on the other key pieces so I want to make sure there is a balance across that in order to deal with this problem.”
This kind of four pronged approach will not be cheap, and Heed knows there is no endless bucket of money “That’s why I am interested in supporting evidence based results on programs that work.” He says the RAP program in Surrey looks promising, if the results can be replicated elsewhere, that’s the kind of program in which the Province will invest “Am I going to just come out and throw money around? No. I firmly believe we have to have evidence based programs that work.”
Since the 7 point plan to battle gang crime was announced last February 13th, more than 140 organized crime and gang members have been arrested throughout the province and have been charged with approximately 350 serious offences.
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Posted by: ervboy on February 16 2010 8:33 AM