CATCHING CRIMINALS BEFORE THEY STEAL YOUR CAR

This is not stuff of science fiction, preventing crime is easier than
you think when statistics clearly identify who commits crime. All we
need now is a government to focus in the right areas.

What if instead of waiting for people to commit crimes, you
identified and stopped them before they broke into your house or
grabbed your mom's purse?

That was the premise of a Tom Cruise flick of a couple of years ago
called Minority Report. Future police were able to identify people on
the brink of killing a spouse or committing some other crime - don't
ask how - and sweep in for a preventive arrest.

And it's also, minus the sci-fi, what the B.C. Progress Board is
recommending in its report on reducing crime in the province.

Instead of focusing on hiring more police and building more jails to
house more criminals - an approach that hasn't worked all that well
so far - the Progress Board report says we should work harder at
keeping people from committing crimes.

It's a good idea, one of a succession of first-rate efforts from the
board since Premier Gordon Campbell set it up in 2001.

There's no fancy science or magic tests involved.

The report says we know what turns people into criminals. Or at least
we know about the people who commit 90 per cent of the crimes. There
are still the crimes of calculation, blind anger or - based on my
brief stint as a court reporter - the extraordinarily rare and scary
people who are just evil. But mostly we can look out into our
communities and know who will be committing crimes in a few years.

Which means we can stop them, or at least a lot of them. The report
from the Progress Board, a hard-headed, business-dominated group,
recommends that approach.

The major cause of criminal activity - no surprise - is drug and
alcohol use, the report notes. People steal to pay for both. Both
make them stupid and unable to see the consequences of their crimes.
Users are angrier, more violent. Suppliers - except for the Liquor
Distribution Branch - commit crimes to protect their businesses.

About four out of five federal penitentiary inmates are substance
abusers, the report found. Deal with that problem and crime plummets.

But, the report found, we aren't doing well.

We talk about the four-pillar approach - prevention, harm reduction,
treatment and enforcement. But treatment isn't available across most
of the province and there's no help to keep people sober. The report
says the problem is especially serious outside the Lower Mainland.

Much more needs to be done, the report says: "Most of all there needs
to be some action."

It's not just drugs. The report identifies a second - equally
unsurprising - cause of crime. That guy shoplifting today was a
neglected or poorly parented four-year-old in 1995. Give kids some
help and a fair chance and they'll do OK, the report says.

But we haven't given many kids a chance.

"Clearly, existing health and social services that address childhood
development issues are not adequate at this time," the board reports.

Little kids need help; they don't get it.

Then there are the crazy people, or, more politely, the mentally ill.
Hospitalization is rare now. But there's not enough community support
either. So people with mental illness end up in jail. The justice
system has a "revolving door" just for them, the report says.

The Progress Board identifies another potential crime group that
includes people from all of the first three categories. People living
"impoverished and chaotic lifestyles" are prone to crime, the report notes.

These are incredibly difficult people. Think of the hardcore
streetpeople you see. But the board's report says making an effort to
deal with their problems and "colossal unmet needs" would pay off in
reduced crime.

All these people have something in common besides a propensity for
crime. They also aren't going to be deterred by more enforcement or
tougher penalties. A mentally ill addict with fetal alcohol disorder
doesn't calculate the odds of getting caught and punished. She leaps.

Just imagine, stopping crimes before they happen. All we have to do is try.

Footnote: The report offers three options for dealing with the drug
trade: Legalize, or if that's not possible or practical, then spend a
great deal on a serious 10-year effort to wipe out the trade. Or, the
report suggests, launch the attack with legalization to follow. The
board makes no recommendation on which course the government should choose.