VANCOUVER POLICE CHIEF SEEKS NEW POLICY FOR CRIMINALS: '30 STRIKES
AND YOU'RE OUT'

VANCOUVER -- Saying his city is plagued by a "ludicrous" trend that
sees career criminals released back onto the streets despite dozens of
convictions, Vancouver's police chief is calling for a
30-strikes-and-you're-out policy for the worst chronic offenders. The
Vancouver Police Department released a report yesterday suggesting the
city is more acutely affected by chronic offenders than others,
particularly due to property crime fuelled by drug addiction.

"We have literally thousands of these criminals who, in any other
city, would be classified as chronic offenders, but in Vancouver the
situation has reached ludicrous proportions," Chief Jim Chu said.

"We say, 30 strikes and you're out, which means we are asking our
judges to protect the public by giving these criminals significant
prison time, and we are asking for Parliament and our appellate courts
to give the judges the tools they need to better respond to this problem."

Chief Chu said sentences for such criminals rarely exceed a few
months.

And even more troubling, he said, sentences appear to decrease in
length as offenders accrue more convictions. Sentences generally
increase in length until the 30th conviction, and then begin to
decrease, police found.

"Two years or more would actually get that person off the streets and
prevent hundreds, if not thousands, of victims of crime from being
victimized," said Chief Chu, who was careful not to lay blame on any
single part of the justice system.

"Every day these chronic offenders are off the street, many grateful
victims are saved from having their homes broken into, their car
broken into and their lives disrupted."

A spokesman for B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal said Mr. Oppal would
be reading the report in the coming days.

A spokeswoman for federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Mr.
Nicholson met with Chief Chu last November, and the two agreed to work
on the issue.

"The problem of chronic offenders is an issue that has been the
subject of studies and several discussions at the
federal/provincial/territorial
ministers of justice meetings," Genevieve Breton said in an e-mail.

She said the federal government will be working with provinces on a
"national strategy" for the problem.

The report examined the criminal records and sentences handed to
anyone with 12 or more charges -- not necessarily convictions -- in
the previous 12 months.

Using that definition, Vancouver police currently monitor 379 chronic
offenders. Of those, 27 are what the report calls "super chronic"
offenders, who have 77 or more convictions.

A 30-strikes policy would affect 205 of the total number of chronic
offenders, the report says.

Inspector Rob Rothwell said there may be several reasons for that
trend, the most obvious being that offenders tend to resort to less
serious crimes further into their careers.

But he said sentences must still increase when there is a clear
pattern that indicates an offender is bound to continue breaking the
law, regardless of the severity of their crimes.

"The focus really has to shift from the proportionality of the
offence," he said.

"Look at the totality of the offending and the effect that has had on
the community and the number of victims, and really, at that point,
it's the protection of the public that becomes the primary
consideration in sentencing the individual."

The report also calls for better collaboration between the police,
Crown lawyers, the judiciary and governments.

It says police must ensure the information forwarded to the Crown is
comprehensive and highlights particularly troublesome cases, and it
says more resources are needed to allow police and Crown prosecutors
to properly handle a burgeoning number of cases.