TIGHTENING THE LOOP AROUND ORGANIZED CRIME

The New Criminal Intelligence Service Bureau Should Foster Better
Information Sharing Among Police Agencies.

P.E.I. police agencies have fired a warning shot across the bows of
organized and major crime elements on the Island. The warning is
clear: take your sleazy business elsewhere. Otherwise you will be
tracked down and prosecuted. There is nowhere to hide anymore.

Provincial police agencies launched P.E.I.'s Criminal Intelligence
Service Bureau on Wednesday, described as the final link in a
national law enforcement network committed to combating organized
crime. We are the last province to connect into this link, which
co-ordinates a provincial bureau with a national organization
dedicated to fighting major and organized crime. Criminals are
getting a lot smarter on how to avoid detection and police have to
respond accordingly.

CISPEI is a collaboration involving all of P.E.I.'s police agencies
to produce and exchange information and intelligence about criminal
activity in P.E.I. Bureau personnel will provide critical support to
law enforcement agencies in their efforts to detect and prevent
organized crime affecting Islanders and the communities they live in.

A good question might be why it took so long to create this joint
police bureau. Was it because, in the past, some police departments
liked to think they were independent groups that didn't need outside
help, and that to seek assistance was seen as a weakness? We're a
little province where all have to work together to bring the guilty
to justice. There should be no reason why RCMP can't work closely
with Charlottetown or Summerside police departments to track down
criminals or stop crime. Of course, there have been examples
of such co-operation in the past, especially with Joint Forces
Operations involving drugs where RCMP and city police have provided
joint manpower and surveillance to arrest drug suspects. The bureau
is taking such examples to a new level.

While P.E.I. does not see the level of organized criminal activity
experienced in larger urban centres, it would be wrong to assume
there is no organized crime in this province. And unfortunately,
P.E.I. has seen more than its share of Internet-related crime
involving child pornography, drug-related violence, counterfeit
goods, and contraband tobacco and identity theft. There have been
recent examples of gangs operating on P.E.I. and police say that
organized crime continues to direct the illegal drug trade and is
also active in P.E.I. in the importation and sale of contraband
tobacco, the illegal sale of prescription drugs, thefts, break and
enters into both residential and commercial establishments and the
sale of counterfeit goods.

Hopefully, the new bureau will help police curb the drug trade by
providing them with intelligence about drug trafficking and
contraband activities. The province has allocated $320,000 per year
over the next five years, combined with additional funding, to
ensure the success of CISPEI. That is a considerable investment in
public safety and security measures. Those kinds of resources are
needed to help combat crime across all provincial jurisdictions.

The bureau should provide the type of intelligence that will be
beneficial for frontline officers. But Islanders should not forget
we all have a role to play. The bureau will help, but citizens also
form a valuable information aid to police as well. Let's help
the police do their job.