215 ADDITIONAL RCMP TO TARGET MAJOR CRIME

Organized Crime, Porn Growing

The B.C. government says it will increase the size of the RCMP by 215 new
officers across the province this year and create a special prosecution
unit to deal with organized crime.

The government's announcement is part of a plan to spend $122 million in
policing, corrections and the courts over the next three years.

"I'm very excited about it," Solicitor-General Rich Coleman said yesterday.
"I know that the RCMP and the provincial forces are more than excited about
it."

The government said the extra officers are the first increase in rural
policing in more than a decade and will add more officers to First Nations
communities. Almost half of the recruits will be assigned to units
investigating cyber, serious and major crimes.

Premier Gordon Campbell said his government is going to do more to make
B.C. communities safer.

"It is not acceptable to us that organized crime is moving into B.C.,
selling drugs that addict our children, importing illegal weapons,"
Campbell said. "It is not acceptable that Internet-luring and child
pornography are becoming prevalent. We need to do more."

Campbell also plans to set up a task force to make recommendations on
legislation and funding that's needed to improve crime prevention and
policing. He wants it to report to a special provincial congress meeting on
public safety this fall.

NDP House Leader Joy MacPhail accused the premier of announcing a similar
task force two years ago.

"They cut massively programs for police. They cut victims of crime
programs. They cut our correctional services," MacPhail said. "And now, all
of the sudden in the weeks before an election, he's become a believer that
more needs to be done."

Coleman said the announcement was the culmination of work he's done with
B.C. police departments since becoming solicitor-general in 2001.

Coleman said he will introduce legislation in the spring to prohibit
criminals from profiting from the proceeds of crime, something he would
like to see Ottawa take action on.

"If somebody buys a house, or buys a TV, or buys a car with cash that they
got as a proceed of crime . . . I don't think they should be allowed to
keep it," Coleman said.

- - Cpl. Peter Thiessen of the Richmond RCMP said a Statistics Canada report
on police resources which states that Richmond has 121 police officers per
100,000 people appears to be flawed. That number includes officers who have
been contracted to the Vancouver International Airport.

He said Richmond had 189 members for the years 2002 and 2003 resulting in
108 officers per 100,000 people.