CRIMEBUSTERS SHARE TIPS ON STREET GANGS

Behind Closed Doors. International Conference Aims To Improve Strategies

Street gang experts from around the world began arriving in Montreal
yesterday for a three-day conference that will allow them to share
intelligence and discuss the most effective strategies to combat gangs.

About 462 delegates will attend the conference, which is being hosted
by the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs. Montreal police chief
Yvan Delorme is co-chairperson of the event.

Several high-ranking members of the Montreal police department are to
attend, along with police chiefs from across North America,
academics, criminal justice agencies, government policy-makers and
specialists in street gang intervention.

The conference is taking place behind closed doors at a downtown
hotel because of the sensitive nature of the discussions, organizers said.

Participants will share their latest intelligence on street gangs and
discuss what police strategies have worked and which ones have
failed, said Ross Hastings, chairperson of the department of
criminology at the University of Ottawa and a conference organizer.

"We are going to talk about what we know about street gangs, what
have we tried and what works," Hastings said.

Street gangs are involved in drug trafficking, prostitution and money
laundering.

Gang members are increasingly using young recruits as street-level
drug dealers because they receive lighter sentences under the Youth
Criminal Justice Act, he said. Recruits are lured into the gang world
because it gives them a sense of protection, family and an easy way
to make money.

"(Society) is more and more prosperous, but not everyone is moving
ahead equally," Hastings said.