POLICE SEEK BIKER BYLAW

Outlaw bikers may never get a serious foothold in Kingston if city
council can be persuaded to pass an "anti-bunker" bylaw.

The provincial legislation, which must be approved by municipalities
before it can be enforced, aims to prevent biker gangs and anyone
else from building fortified bunkers that could keep police out.

"It will probably be March before we get it to the Police Services
board," said Insp. Dan Murphy, the city's deputy police chief.

The Municipal Act was changed two years ago so each city would have
the right to enact "anti-fortification" bylaws. The change would mean
structures already built before the bylaw came into place would also
be bound by it.

At least 15 municipalities have adopted the proposed bylaw, including
Windsor, Sudbury, London, Midland, Pickering, Burlington and Thunder Bay.

Const. Neil Finn, acting media relations officer for Kingston Police,
brought a draft version of the bylaw to the city a couple of years
ago, when he was a member of the force's biker unit.

As the representative for Kingston, Finn worked on the province's
Biker Enforcement Unit, an organization comprised of the RCMP and law
enforcement agencies across Ontario that work together to fight
outlaw biker gang crime.

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police convinced the provincial
government to draft the legislation.

Proponents hope the Kingston Police Services Board will forward the
proposed bylaw to city council.

Police believe the powers it provides could stop an outlaw biker
gang, such as the Hells Angels, from setting up a chapter in Kingston
from which it could deal in drugs, weapons, prostitution and stolen
property, or operate illegal drinking establishments.

"It's one more deterrent to keep them from coming," said Finn. "It
would prevent them from setting up a clubhouse in the city and, if
they set up a clubhouse, guarantee it would have problems."

Outlaw biker gangs like to fortify their clubhouses to prevent police
from raiding them and to fend off attacks from rival biker gangs.

About seven years ago, during the biker war between Quebec's Rock
Machine and the Hells Angels, a rocket launcher was used on a Hells
Angels clubhouse in Trois Rivieres. The shell did not go off.

Biker gangs have been known to use items such as railway ties, steel
trusses, plates and shutters to fortify clubhouses. Finn isn't aware
of any bunkers in the city at the moment.

The bylaw would forbid the erection of an observation tower,
protective walls made of metal or bulletproof glass or shutters that
would be difficult to break in a fire.

Electrified fencing or other dangerous hidden traps would contravene the bylaw.

Also in contravention are laser-eye warning systems and visual
surveillance equipment that could scan beyond the perimeter of the property.

"No person shall excessively fortify or barricade any land for the
purpose of restricting, obstructing or hindering access to that
land," the proposed bylaw reads.

It says no fortifications could be built that would prevent a police
officer or emergency services person from getting onto or into a property.

It also says that bylaw enforcement officers would have the right to
enter any property to determine if the bylaw had been obeyed.

If a bylaw enforcement officer were to decide the law had been
broken, he or she could order that work be done to correct the contravention.

The anti-fortification bylaw wouldn't apply to several types of
properties, including banks, detention centres, land belonging to law
enforcement agencies and city-owned property.

Finn said it's particularly important that Kingston have an
anti-bunker bylaw because the outlaw biker gangs see this city as a
strategically attractive place to set up base.

Halfway between Toronto and Montreal, next to the U.S. border, on the
water and home to several prisons where there's a steady demand for
illicit drugs, Kingston is a good location for doing bad business.

Although a number of outlaw biker gangs have a presence in the area,
including the Hells Angels and the Bandidos, no single player dominates.

However, Finn said that could change if a gang such as the Hells
Angels decided to make a concentrated effort to set up a chapter here.

"It's only a matter of time. Eventually we will have another one,"
said Finn, who spent five years with the Biker Enforcement Unit.

Other gangs, such as the Outlaws, have had chapters in Kingston.

Finn believes outlaw biker gangs have avoided setting up larger
operations here largely because they can't seem to get local drug
buyers and sellers to work exclusively for them.

"There are so many independents here that they won't align themselves
with another gang," Finn said. "If they can get a better deal from
someone else, they will deal with them."

Finn thinks the lack of loyalty may be due to the large number of
penitentiaries in the area. Perhaps many of the city's dealers are
ex-convicts from out of town who don't have loyalties to an
established set of people.

Continued police pressure on outlaw gangs has also made operating
here difficult.

Booze cans illegal drinking establishments run by outlaw biker gangs
have been tightly monitored by police so that patrons are intimidated
from attending.

In the past, open displays of outlaw biker gang colours have prompted
police to be vigilant with traffic infractions.

Finn said it's amazing how effective the smallest measures can be.

"If you look after the little things, the big things always fall in
line," he said. "If we stop them in a traffic violation, they usually
don't pay their fines. If they don't pay their fines, they lose their
driver's licence."