VIOLENT CRIME GROWING

Lethbridge regional police are seeing a trend toward more violence and
weapons in the city, due in large part to the infiltration of new,
more ruthless elements of the drug trade.

"We have seen a different kind of drug trafficker in this city than we
did, say, 10 and 15 years ago. We're seeing organized crime groups
from other cities, people from different personal backgrounds that are
recent arrivals to the city, and they've brought with them a different
attitude towards violence," said Insp. Colin Catonio. "That includes
pointing firearms, whether they're real or not."

Earlier this week, police released their 2009 annual report, which
showed street robberies with weapons other than guns increased 75 per
cent last year to 21 from 12 in 2008, and armed robberies involving
guns quadrupled to eight from only two in 2008.

"There are people from some various personal backgrounds that, for
whatever reason, they've grown up with an attitude that life is less
precious.

"They're more willing to use violence," he said."This has been our
fear because we have seen it unfolding in the larger centres. Calgary
is two hours away, and we've been seeing it for awhile in Calgary.
We've been seeing their drugs in Lethbridge for awhile. We always were
concerned that they were going bring with them the violence they've
been using to Lethbridge, and they've done that," he said.

"What we don't want is this to be commonplace in Lethbridge."

Two clashes in the first half of this year involving gunfire have
provided further evidence of this alarming trend. In March, a man with
suspected links to the drug trade was wounded in a hail of gunfire in
an apparent ambush outside a southside apartment building. Then in
mid-April, another man was injured in a drug-related drive-by shooting
along a residential street on the northside.

But even generally, Catonio added, "there seems to be less respect
among individuals. They more easily come to blows, and when they do,
they'll bring a weapon with them. It seems to be a societal thing."

Assaults on police officers were up, as well, to 24 last year from 19
in 2008, according to the report.

Also somewhat disconcerting is a 39 per cent increase in domestic
violence reports. Police investigated 1,101 reports of domestic
violence in 2009 compared to 792 the previous year.

Catonio said it's hard to know whether that statistic indicates the
problem has gotten worse or that fewer victims are letting such crimes
go unreported.

He noted another factor may be that the definition of domestic crime
has broadened in recent years.

"Not only does it include an actual assault, it includes acts of
intimidation, harassment, nuisance phone calls and breaches (of court
orders)," he said.

Meanwhile, the number of police reports involving possession and
trafficking of marijuana and cocaine were relatively unchanged from
year to year. In 2009, police handled 86 cases of cocaine trafficking,
30 reports of cocaine possession, 29 cases of marijuana trafficking
and 100 cases of marijuana possession. The number of busts for
marijuana production dropped by half to four in 2009 from eight the
previous year.

As has been the long-term trend locally, there were no drug cases
involving crystal meth or heroin and only a handful involving ecstasy.

"The drugs of choice for southern Alberta continue to be marijuana and
crack cocaine. There, we're seeing a significant problem," he said.

Locally, he said, drug users seem to recognize the extremely
destructive properties of drugs such as crystal meth and heroin, and
consequently there's virtually no market for here.

"In my 30 years of policing, heroin has never been a drug of concern
in southern Alberta," he said. "Not to say that there isn't any out
there and there isn't the odd user of heroin, but heroin has been
largely confined to the large centres of Vancouver and Toronto."

False alarms continue to be a problem for police. They dealt with
2,062 false alarms in 2009, up 15 per cent from the previous year. But
genuine alarms were up as well to 57, an 84 per cent increase from the
previous year