ALBERTA RCMP STRAINED BY ORGANIZED CRIME FOCUS

Workload Overwhelming Investigators

Authorities are making significant busts targeting organized crime and
child pornography in Alberta, but internal RCMP documents reveal the
successes are coming at a cost as specialized police units labour
under growing workloads and compete for seasoned investigators.

Annual evaluations obtained by the Herald though an
access-to-information request show police in some areas are being
swamped by the sheer volume of evidence being seized during complex,
timeconsuming investigations.

The pressures are an unintended downside of moves by the provincial
government to beef up policing and add teeth to legislation aimed at
organized crime - a trade-off that, for now, senior RCMP officers are
happy to accept.

"There is no shortage of work," said Chief Supt. Dan Killam. "We're
getting great support from the province in policing and we're
receiving new resources in several areas. Until the economic outlook
improves a bit, you can only afford so much."

Proceeds of crime units based in Edmonton and Calgary are under
particular strain, according to the documents.

The units, made up of RCMP and municipal police, use the court process
to permanently conf iscate cash and property if they can prove it was
used to commit crime or it was the product of criminal earnings.

Connecting property to criminal activity can be a painstaking process:
police first "restrain" property until a court ultimately decides if
it will be permanently forfeited to the Crown.

An RCMP evaluator in Calgary noted local investigators are burdened
with a heavy caseload that threatens only to get bigger as police
increasingly opt to seize homes used in marijuana grow operations.
"More restraints anticipated by external police forces to counteract
gang issue," says the evaluation, written in February 2009.

"Since 2005, an average of 500 investigations have been referred to
Calgary. . . . Proceeds of crime investigations take on average three
months and up to three years to reach the court system for resolution.
The majority of these referrals are concluded with minimal
investigation due to a lack of investigators."

Until recently, prosecutors could move to conf i scate property only
upon conviction in criminal court, but the provincial government
passed legislation last year allowing authorities to also use the
civil court process - where the burden of proof is lower - to go after
proceeds of crime.

Alberta Justice said there are 102 cases involving $11.2 million in
seized assets - including 11 homes and 52 vehicles - working their way
through the civil forfeiture process so far this year.

"Because it's successful, people are using it," Killam said. "People
are very pleased with what they're seeing, but it's generating work."

While police laud forfeiture as a way of taking away profits from
gangsters, one criminologist questioned whether going through the
process to seize houses and vehicles is worth the effort.

Homes used in grow ops, for example, are often rented or bought with
very little money down.

"There's not a lot of personal attachment to the property or whatever
is being seized," said Carolyn Greene, an assistant professor at
Athabasca University.

"The seizure of the drugs themselves is probably the most painful part
of the process (to criminals)."

The proceeds of crime unit is one of several integrated, provincewide
squads created in recent years as a response to criminal activity that
crosses jurisdictional boundaries.

The province created the Integrated Child Exploitation unit in 2006 to
counter a growing tide of child pornography being made available over
the Internet.

A report on the ICE unit's northern office in Edmonton voiced concern
that a shortage of forensic investigators to examine computers and
other electronic devices seized by police may negatively affect court
cases.

"If the forensic examinations are not conducted in a timely manner,
the end results will be seen at the court proceedings," an evaluator
wrote in February 2009.

The problem, Killam said, is the vacancies are hard to fill because
the work is highly specialized and involves viewing thousands of
images of children being abused.

"You can't put just anybody in this job," he said.

The southern Alberta ICE team, based in Calgary, hasn't experienced a
similar manpower shortage, and forensic investigators in this city
have helped ease the backlog in Edmonton, added Killam.

Nearly half of the RCMP's 2,541 members working in federal, provincial
and municipal policing roles in Alberta have less than five years'
experience. Killam acknowledged this creates jockeying among the
force's plainclothes units for replacements when experienced officers
retire or get promoted.

"No question, we have a very junior workforce. There's a strong
competition between the units to get the most qualified members," he
said.

An evaluator in Red Deer noted the drug section in the central Alberta
city has weathered an exodus of experienced members at the same time
the community is wrestling with an increase in gang activity.

"There is an increase in organized crime groups and with allegiances
between groups being developed to facilitate their operations.
Similarly, as new groups enter the arena, levels of violence between
groups vying for market share is escalating," the report says.