ONE SMALL STEP TO BETTER POLICING

New Integrated Property Crime Unit Is Useful, But What's Needed Is A
True Regional Force

The creation of a regional police unit to tackle property crime is at
once a welcome step forward and a reminder of how far we have to go in
creating effective, unified police services.

The squad makes sense. Property crimes -- car break-ins, home
burglaries and the like -- rarely make headlines. Injuries are
infrequent and the costs to each victim are relatively small -- a few
hundred dollars to replace a stereo, fix a broken car window or buy a
new bicycle.

But as the crimes become increasingly common, the economic impact
mounts in both direct costs and indirect levies like rising insurance
rates.

And perhaps more damaging, these crimes steal our basic sense of
security. The all-too-common experience of returning to a car to find
a smashed window undermines our confidence that this is a safe community.

The new regional squad, which will start with eight officers and two
support staff and grow to 17 members over the next three years, should
help in the battle against property crime.

A relatively small number of people --almost all driven by the need to
get money for drugs, according to police -- commit a large number of
the crimes. A single offender who breaks into half a dozen cars a day
can easily commit more than a 1,000 crimes in a year and do $500,000
worth of damage.

And the offenders, of course, don't operate within municipal
boundaries. It makes sense to keep moving, to commit crimes in
Victoria one week, Oak Bay the next, then Saanich. The chances of
being targeted by each police force fall if offenders keep moving

The regional property crime unit should help solve that problem. The
officers will be able to spot patterns that cross police department
lines and target the most serious offenders. They will develop
specialized skills and knowledge and stay focused on the crimes and
the criminals.

While this is a step forward, it is a remarkably tiny one. Since 2001
the provincial government has been pressing for regional policing. The
Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce supports regionalization. A B.C.
Progress Board report last year described the current fragmented
policing structure in the region as "bizarre."

Yet policing remains, for the most part, spread across four municipal
forces and three RCMP detachments. There has been co-operation on
major crimes and a successful integrated traffic unit.

But those -- and now the property crime unit and an Island major crime
team -- are relatively small exceptions in a fragmented police system.

Back in 2003, then solicitor general Rich Coleman said he was
frustrated by foot-dragging on regional policing and promised
immediate action. "We will integrate everything in policing on the
lower Island in municipal departments above patrol, community policing
and school liaison," he vowed. That was a sound vision.

The property unit is a useful effort. But the region would be better
served by a fully integrated police force. It's going to take more
provincial government leadership to make that happen.