U.S. CRIME PREVENTION EXPERT SAYS THROWING MONEY AND POLICE AT
CALGARY'S GANG PROBLEM WILL NOT MAKE IT GO AWAY

War On Gangs

A naive waste of time and $25 million -- yet totally predictable for
any city in a panic over blood spilled through gang and drug warfare.

That's the harsh assessment of leading gang violence authorities in
the U.S., as Calgary's mayor and police chief look to spend their way
out of a corner filled with bullets and bodybags.

The plan touted yesterday by Mayor Dave Bronconnier and Chief Rick
Hanson -- $25 million to hire 201 cops -- will do nothing to
cauterize gang bloodshed, say the experts.

"It's a predictable response -- you go after the problem in the same
way as before, at a higher intensity, and it doesn't work," said
David M. Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention at New
York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

"Generally, upping law enforcement resources makes no dent at all."

Kennedy, a former Harvard researcher, might be brushed off as an
ivory-tower theorist, except his advice is sought by U.S. police from
coast-to-coast, as well as the White House and the U.S. Justice Department.

His reputation was cemented in the mid-1990s, when he helped the
Boston police force reduce gang violence by more than two-thirds,
under a program known as Operation Ceasefire, or the Boston Miracle.

Kennedy says Calgary's gang- and drug-related violence -- tentatively
linked to four deaths in the past month -- is "significant," and he
says most cities naively fumble with the more-police approach at first.

"But it doesn't matter how hard you jump on them -- tougher policing
makes no impact at all".

What works, says Kennedy, is an approach that targets the gang as a
whole, not the individual members.

It's a radical strategy that's working wonders in cities like San
Francisco and Cincinnati -- and Kennedy says it will work in Calgary,
too, if city officials are ready to try a new approach.

First, city council and police officials must acknowledge that
Calgary will never eradicate gangs.

And then -- and here's the really hard part -- an open discussion
with gang members is required.

"You don't negotiate or cut deals, but it requires a direct
relationship with the gangs," he said.

Once a dialogue is established, police must lay down the law about
violence and murder, says Kennedy.

"The police must say, our promise to the next group to do this, we
will punish every single member with every legal tool at our disposal
- -- we're giving you prior notice, so you know what will happen," said Kennedy.

It means a single gun fired by a lone gang member will see his
comrades rounded up and charged for everything from driving
violations to drug infractions to missed child support.

"When somebody hurts somebody else, the police go after everybody in
the gang -- after a while, the group starts policing itself," said Kennedy.

The threat forces a gang to keep a low, non-violent profile or risk
ruin at the hands of a police force who won't lay off on the arrests
and charges.

Kennedy, who advocates assistance for gang members from social
services and community leaders, says cities using his strategy have
seen violence drop between 50% and 75% within a few months.

Cheryl Maxson, a professor in criminology at the University of
California, says Calgary's attempt to defeat gang and drug violence
with more police officers is "unenlightened."

"Targeted suppression responds immediately to the public safety issue
and the solution is often to flood an area with police officers --
the problem is, that's often the only solution they have," said Maxson.

She says the extra police not only fail to crush the gangs, but the
members arrested and sent to prison often become a more serious
problem once incarcerated.

"In places where there's been police suppression, and members are
jailed, they've seen the growth of a very serious problem with prison
gang culture," said Maxson.

"Often times, cities react with a disproportionate response, but
gangs feed on conflict and an inadequate intervention can backfire."