POLICE CHIEF PROMISES SAFEST CITY IN B.C.

Police Chief Bob Rich Is Promising To Make Abbotsford The Safest City
In British Columbia.

Rich has a new strategic plan which will not only address gang crime
and violence, but also property crime, serious car crashes, domestic
violence, police response times and street disorder.

The rash of shooting incidents last week only highlights the need to
suppress gang crime, said Rich.

"I believe dealing with gang crime and violence is the number-one
policing priority of Abbotsford and all [departments] in the province."

Public safety is the main concern, said Rich, referring to the recent
attempt on alleged gangster James Bacon's life where bullets flew
through a busy intersection in broad daylight.

"The greatest fear any one of us here has is that an innocent person
will get caught in the crossfire. We want to do all we can to reduce
the chances of that happening."

The number of gangs in the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland has
doubled in the last five years, he said.

"Instability has increased, and the proliferation of handguns among
[gang members] has also greatly increased."

There were six homicides in Abbotsford in 2008, three of which were
linked to gang violence or the drug trade.

The Abbotsford Police drug squad is going to go after gangs involved
in violence and disrupt their business, said Rich.

The APD will continue to work with and provide members to the
provincial integrated units such as the Integrated Homicide
Investigation Team (IHIT), the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force, and
Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), which targets and
investigates the enterprises of organized crime.

However, Rich said the integrated units need more resources to combat
gang violence and organized crime effectively.

"Resources assigned to the integrated units haven't kept up with
demand. We need more officers in those units, and more Crown counsels
and court capacity to deal with resulting charges," he said.

"However, I also realize what a difficult request this is during the
middle of an economic downturn."

The APD's new strategic plan was devised and approved by the police
board in the fall.

Besides suppressing gang crime, goals include reducing property crime
by 30 per cent in three years, and reducing fatal or serious crashes
by 10 per cent in 2009.

Property crime is a persistent problem in Abbotsford, accounting for
75 per cent of all crime.

Rich said the department's new crime reduction unit (CRU) formed in
2008, focusing on prolific offenders, is a significant step in
combatting property crime.

Another goal is to address domestic violence, which is a difficult
problem to resolve, he said.

Domestic violence often goes unreported, and if reported, it's
difficult to get through court.

"It's been shown that having police that continue to focus on and
work with the victim significantly improves the success rate in
dealing with the offender."

Rich also plans to improve officers' response to calls for service,
aiming for the policing standard to respond to priority one calls
within a seven-minute window.

The challenge is finding the right balance between officers on patrol
able to respond to calls, and those mandated to work on the department's goals.

One trick is to make better use of patrol officers, and a patrol
efficiency study is being done.

Half of APD officers are tied up in patrol, responding to calls on
average 80 per cent of their time.

Rich wants officers spending closer to 50 per cent of their time
responding to calls.

Along with more violent crime, the APD wants to deal with street
disorder, or the visual signs of crime.

"People openly selling or using drugs, aggressive panhandling,
prostitution. . . . If you were to survey the public and ask the
citizens what distresses them, they would say these things make them
feel unsafe," he said.

"You wouldn't want your 10-year-old son bicycling down the street to
have to deal with it."