We Are Well Informed: One Man's Opinion
By Ben Meisner
Monday, April 16, 2007 03:45 AM
Recently there have been comments concerning the crime rate in the city.
There is a feeling that crime and violence have shown major increases.
In Prince George we are blessed with what I consider to be a police department which has kept the public informed second to none.
While crime may have increased and the incidence of violence may also be increasing in this city, it is a very rare occurrence indeed when an act of violence, accident, or drug bust is not reported.
The availability of that information is a credit to the RCMP who police this city from the Staff sergeants who man the controls on a day i-n day out basis, to the officers in the field, and Gary Goodwin who is the RCMP liaison officer.
I have spent 50 years in gathering new across Canada; no city has ever reached the level of informing the public of what is going on in the field every day, than this city.
I may take exception to some of the methods that are employed in dealing with cases involving fellow police officers but that shouldn’t detract from what I consider to be the most complete information of what really is taking place in our city on a day to day basis.
I don’t know who is responsible for the media reports that are issued on an item by item basis, I think that perhaps it falls on the plate of every single officer. The result has been a community that may think there are days our city is awash with crime, when in reality, the fact that you are getting the information on the investigation activities may be misleading our thinking.
The citizens of Prince George are being given what I consider the most up to date information and for that, we doff our hats today.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion
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I think where the system falls down is in the reporting of the final outcome of those cases that are reported. When the offenders go to court, what was the outcome of the trial and what was the sentence. It seems that this information is lacking. One reason is probably because of the long gap between the time an individual is charged and when he is found to be innocent, or guilty, etc; Also I beleive that statistically about two thirds of crimes committed are never solved, and then of course we have no court case, sentencing, or any other news in regards to the original crime.
A case in point would be the stabbing under the Masse overpass. At this point in time no one has been arrested, and no charges laid. This case could sit on the Police files for years, along with thousands of others. We the public dont have a good feel for the number of crimes committed, the number of charges laid, and the number of convictions, and the type of sentencing received. Nor do we have a good feel for the number of crimes committed by people on parole.
I suspect all this information is available if one wanted to spend the time digging it out, however that is not likely to happen.
It seems that the **Story** is the committing of the crime, and the initial arrest, however interest seems to fall off after that. At the end of the year we get a long list of statistics, buts thats about it.
People assume rightly or wrongly that the majority of these crimes are committed by the same people over and over, and it would appear that this is probably true, because in a City of this size you would statistically only have so many criminals.
If it is the same people over and over, then the public should be aware of this, and pressure put on the Attorney Generals office etc; to have these people incarcerated for a longer period.