NEW RESEARCH CRITICAL, EXPERTS SAY

Data Not Keeping Pace With Gang Growth

Police are handcuffed in fighting gangs because they simply don't
have enough information on the burgeoning number of criminal
organizations, experts say.

There has been no comprehensive research done on gangs in B.C. in the
past several years, even though academic experts acknowledge the gang
landscape has changed dramatically since the 1990s -- the last time
any research was undertaken.

"[In the 1980s and 1990s] there were more easily-identifiable, named
groups and they were very much strutting their stuff in the manner of
Hollywood movies," said Robert Gordon, a criminology professor at
Simon Fraser University.

"But that's all collapsed. What has risen is a more amorphous set of
groups which are focusing their activity in the illegal drug trade,"
Gordon said yesterday.

Police now estimate there are more than 125 organized-crime groups in B.C.

Understanding the gang problem in terms of who is involved, what
their numbers are, what activities they're involved in and why they
joined is crucial to forming a comprehensive plan, experts say.

That was emphasized last week at the Canadian Association of Chiefs
of Police street-gang conference in Montreal. The CACP ended the
conference by calling for a national strategy on street gangs that
involves not just police enforcement but prevention and programs that
enable members to leave gangs.

Meanwhile, Gordon is critical of Solicitor-General John Les for
rejecting the idea of creating a regional police force, relying
instead on cross-jurisdictional forces.

"Obviously, something is wrong with those integrated teams because
they've been spectacularly unsuccessful in dealing with the illegal
trade in drugs, which has been building in this province for a long
time and which has been far from silent in dealing with their
disputes," said Gordon.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and even some police officers have said
a regional force is needed. And in his 1994 report on policing,
current Attorney-General and then-judge Wally Oppal called for a
major crime unit to be formed for the Lower Mainland and Victoria.

But yesterday, Les said in the legislature that there was no need for
such a force.

"I think we are properly organized to deal with these kinds of
criminal activity and the debate about whether it should be this or
whether it should be that is a bit of an unproductive red herring
right now," said Les.

"Obviously, you've got to have maximum sharing of information, and
that is in fact happening," he said.

Les said the province has funded 900 new police officers since 2002,
including 600 for integrated units, mostly in the Lower Mainland.

RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout of the Integrated Homicide Investigation
Team said: "The best way to tackle gang crime from an enforcement
perspective [is through] co-ordinated investigations, working with
external partners and working with all the police departments
together with a cross-border approach."

He also said it's important to educate children as young as seven
about the dangers of gang involvement.

"Parents of teens and young adults who don't work, but drive fancy
cars, should be aware their children are likely involved with gangs,"
said Rideout.

Sgt. Shinder Kirk, spokesman for the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force,
agreed that education is one of the keys to battling gangs.

"We need to take a 360-degree approach," he said. "And a large
component of that is of course enforcement.

"But the other part of that is looking at the issues that give rise
to these groups -- that's the issue of drug addiction, the
glamorization of gangs."

Everyone agrees that drugs fuel the gangs.

Michael Chettleburgh, a street-gang expert based in Toronto, said
B.C.'s gang violence is "lubricated by drugs" and drug reform must be
addressed as part of any solution.

"We are never going to get on top of this unless we get on top of
drugs," said Chettleburgh.

"The business of gangs is the business of drugs."