A SMARTER WAY TO REDUCE CRIME

It seems so obvious you wonder why the police didn't try it long ago.
By shifting attention to repeat offenders, RCMP in five B.C.
communities dramatically reduced the incidence of property crimes.

Buoyed by the success of this pilot project, the RCMP are going to
expand it across the province. It's an approach other police
departments, like Vancouver's, have also found effective. Greater
Victoria police forces are also forming a regional crime squad to
target repeat criminals. The squad is expected to begin work this month.

Police have likely known all along intuitively that a small proportion
of criminals are responsible for much of the crime. Now they have data
to prove it.

During the study period from 2004 to 2006, property crime rates were
falling, in Canada by about 10 per cent and in B.C. by about 15 per
cent. Yet in five B.C. communities, the drop was even greater -- 27
per cent on average.

So what was different in those communities? The RCMP shifted
enforcement toward identifying repeat offenders and investigating
their crimes.

This had the effect of getting chronic offenders off the streets
sooner and preventing them from committing even more crimes, according
to Allan Castle, who is in charge of criminal analysis for the RCMP's
Pacific region.

The beauty of the strategy is it didn't involve any greater use of
police resources.

"What works in policing is not always self-evident," Castle says. Just
putting more officers on the beat isn't the answer. In fact that's
been demonstrated to have a "negligible impact on public safety," he
says.

What the pilot projects show is that removing repeat offenders from
the equation does have a significant impact. In Courtenay, for
example, RCMP identified nine people who were responsible for 16 per
cent of the property crime in the summer of 2006. In the summer of
2005, 19 offenders accounted for half the vehicle break-ins in Coquitlam.

Shifting the focus from offences to offenders is "about better
co-ordination and working smarter," Castle says.

Theoretically the shift means that police won't be able to respond
immediately to every report of a break-and-enter. In practice though,
Castle says, the tradeoffs haven't been as great as
anticipated.

What's needed next is another major shift in attitudes. The problem
isn't solved if repeat offenders simply return to lives of crime after
time in jail.

For some prison is the only option. However, many chronic offenders
have addiction problems. Unless they receive treatment, they'll do
what they have to do, including more crime, to get drugs and alcohol.
Today in B.C., timely treatment is difficult to access, often impossible.

Does that mean that rather than hire more police officers, our
governments should hire more addictions counsellors?

"Absolutely," says Castle.