A COP ON THE BEAT TAKES ON THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

"I'm sure I will get into trouble for releasing this to the media."

With that, Vancouver police Constable Gerry Wickstead conveys the risk he's
prepared to take to let the public in on the mess that is B.C.'s justice
system.

Constable Wickstead, 40, is a community police officer in Chinatown, which
takes in the seedy Main and Hastings intersection. He has walked this beat
for eight of his 16 years on the force.

Concern about the justice system prompted him to assemble, over the past
four years, a series of reports documenting its poor performance.

"I believe that the entire [justice] system needs to be overhauled. This
change won't occur until the public is informed." He's looking for an
academic who will help him prepare a comprehensive report.

"To me, Canada's justice system is a lot of smoke and mirrors, and lacks
real substance."

Constable Wickstead notes that he speaks only for himself. He has had mixed
response from supervisors who have reviewed his research. Some want it made
public. Others have told him it's best to work within the system.

His material isn't confidential. It's a detailed compilation of stats that
are in the public realm. But boy oh boy, when put together, they tell quite
the tale.

B.C. consistently has the highest average crime rate of any province and
the worst record of catching criminals and laying charges for reported crimes.

B.C. police solve fewer than one in five reported crimes.

Keep in mind, nearly 60 per cent of criminal incidents aren't reported.
That's because people fear their insurance premiums will increase or
believe police won't capture the culprits anyway.

Vancouver is the worst metropolitan area for crime, making Montreal, Quebec
City and Calgary look angelic.

We're tops provincially too. B.C. leads all provinces in "personal and
household victimization." If you want safety, move to P.E.I. or Newfoundland.

In fact, B.C. is so crime-prone that, even though we have a little more
than half Quebec's population, in 2000 we had more criminal incidents
reported on a net basis. That's astounding.

And either our crooks are especially talented or our police are
overburdened because in B.C. charges are laid in just 18 per cent of
reported criminal incidents. In Quebec, charges are laid in nearly a quarter.

It's noteworthy that B.C. ranks fifth of 10 provinces in terms of per
capita police spending.

And remember, the Campbell government is embarking on cutbacks; the
solicitor-general's budget is being reduced by nearly 11 per cent over
three years.

Federal, provincial and municipal policing in B.C. costs $157 per capita.
In Quebec, where there's less crime, it's $187.

What this means is B.C. has relatively few police officers -- 165 for every
100,000 people. This compares to a Canadian average of 182.

This is the province in Canada where a criminal has the least chance of
getting nabbed. As already noted, only 18 per cent of reported crime is
dealt with successfully, compared to 25 per cent in Ontario and 30 per cent
in Alberta.

When you look at drug crimes, B.C. is truly tops.

With just 13 per cent of Canada's population, B.C. accounts for 24 per cent
of the country's drug offences. Our big speciality -- pot cultivation. We
account for nearly a third of all such offences in the country.

And here's a stat to knock the socks off law-abiding Vancouverites. The
city has less than two per cent of Canada's population but accounts for 13
per cent of all cocaine trafficking offences.

More troubling, B.C. police do every bit as poorly catching perpetrators
and laying charges for drug offences as they do for violent and property
crime incidents.

Yet B.C. spends the most per capita on legal prosecutions in general ($12
per capita compared to $7 in Alberta and Ontario, and $4 in Quebec) and on
legal aid, but it ranks no better than seventh among 10 provinces for
sentencing people to jail.

All these numbers are overwhelming but add up to an obvious conclusion, one
that hasn't escaped Constable Wickstead: If you want to be a crook, B.C. is
far and away the best place to locate.

More from Constable Wickstead tomorrow, on the war on drugs.