TOP COP SEEKS TOUGHER SENTENCING

Chief Const. Chu Says City Is Plagued With 379 Chronic Offenders

Vancouver's police chief appealed to the courts yesterday to get
tough with chronic offenders.

Any career criminal with more than 30 convictions should be locked
up, said Chief Const. Jim Chu.

"We are asking our judges to protect the public by giving these
criminals significant prison time," he said.

Chu said the police department is monitoring 379 chronic offenders,
almost all of them addicted to cocaine or crystal meth or both, with
27 classified as "super chronic."

"There is an epidemic of career criminals who infect our city," Chu said.

"I'm talking about the plague of career criminals who infect our
city, commit hundreds of crimes literally everyday, despite the fact
that many have more than 100 criminal convictions.

"These criminals primarily commit property crimes to feed their drug
addictions."

One super-chronic offender has 80 convictions and a crack cocaine addiction.

He needs to steal daily, even hourly, to feed his habit, which
gobbles up more than $1.2 million worth of property in a year.

"We say 30 strikes and give these criminals significant jail time," Chu said.

"The average length of jail sentences is going down not up.

"In Vancouver the situation has reached ludicrous proportions . . .
we have literally thousands of these criminals who in any other city
would be classified as chronic offenders after they have had five
criminal convictions."

Chu said one offender has a record of convictions so long "it will no
longer fit on the national computer system."

Insp. Rob Rothwell said no other jurisdiction in Canada has a
repeat-offender problem like Vancouver.

"There is a property-crime problem here that is more than double that
of Toronto and Delta," he said.

"Nowhere else has a city been experiencing to this extent the number
of chronic offenders."

The use of cocaine and crystal meth "puts them into a criminal spiral
where they go 24/7 committing crimes and using the drugs."

"At some point there has to be some meaningful sentencing," he said.

Albert Des Lauriers, who runs Save On Meats on East Hastings Street
in the crime-ridden Downtown Eastside, said running a business in the
area is very difficult.

"People don't care because there is no punishment," he said. "They
are bragging about what they can get away with.

"If we don't correct this now, what will it be like in 20 years down there?"

Attorney-General Wally Oppal would not comment before seeing Chu's remarks.

Stan Lowe, spokesman for the criminal justice branch, said: "We know
the root of many of these problems is drugs and we are hoping the
community courts will help deal with prolific offenders."