BBC LATEST TO PICK UP ON VANCOUVER'S GANG VIOLENCE PROBLEM

The reputable British Broadcasting Corporation is the latest
international media outlet reporting on the dramatic increase in gang
violence in Metro Vancouver.

The BBC reports - on radio, television and online - highlighted the
increase in organized crime murders in the last two years,
interviewing police, victims' families and an ex-gangster.

"Drug Trouble in Paradise," one BBC headline blared online.

"The west coast Canadian city of Vancouver, home to the 2010 Winter
Olympics, is routinely voted one of the best communities in the world
to live in, a place people here like to think of as paradise. But
there is a dark side to paradise," the article continues. Over the
last few months, the Los Angeles Times, the London-based Independent
newspaper and the Economist magazine have all focused on Vancouver's gang wars.

Solicitor General Kash Heed said Thursday that we have to acknowledge
the problem highlighted in the international coverage, while
recognizing that a lot has been done to combat gangs.

"We've had [a] difficult time. In 2008, we had 29 more homicides on
our streets and that is unacceptable," Heed said in an interview.
"But in February of this year, we announced the seven-point gang and
organized crime strategy to deal with this violence."

That plan, which included more cops and more designated prosecutors,
resulted in dozens of gang arrests and hundreds of charges in the
last few months, Heed said. "We have had recent success." And there
are many other cities in the world with a much worse organized crime
problem. But the BBC reports come after a rash of gangland slayings
in recent days. Homicide detectives were probing seven new homicides
in four days last week alone.

Heed said the B.C. government is still pushing for legislative
changes in Ottawa that would aid police in their anti-gang investigations.

"We also believe in taking a balanced approach to this problem so we
can get in front of it," Heed said. "And that includes not only being
tough on these gang members and pursuing them aggressively, but being
equally tough on the social conditions that breed them. "

And he said while it is important to focus on the gang problem, it is
equally important to take note that overall violent crime is down in B.C.

"My goal is to have the most effective and accountable police service
in British Columbia and part of that is to review our processes and
our structures to ensure that we are targeting our problems and
policing smarter than we ever have before," Heed said.

Vancouver pollster Angus Reid was in London Thursday, where his
company has an office. When his taxi driver heard he was from
Vancouver, "he confronted me with the story on Guns, Drugs and Crime
that he heard on the BBC," Reid said in an e-mail.

"It was quite weird really - normally when I come to London ... I
chat with people who, upon finding I'm from Vancouver, dish out the
usual praise 'what a great city,'" Reid said. "The cabbie told me
that he thought Vancouver seemed like Chicago in the 1920s -
gunfights on the street, gang wars. It was really a bit of a wake-up
call that our international reputation leading up to our "Olympic"
moment may not be quite as perfect as we think."