Increased criminal activity related to gangs from the Lower Mainland moving into northern B.C. is an alarming trend for Prince George police, city council heard in a report delivered at Monday’s public meeting.
RCMP Supt. Shaun Wright delivered the 2023 crime statistics for the city that shows there were 2,673 violent incidents police had to deal with last year, up eight per cent from 2,472 in 2022, while incidents of assault rose to a four-year high (1,449) up 11 per cent from 2022.
Yearly increases were also noted in the number of charges of aggravated assault/assault with a weapon (455) and robbery (149, up 43 per cent from 2022), while there were fewer sexual offenses (186) and fewer break-and-enters (615) in 2023 compared to the previous year.
“The disturbing trend we’ve seen going back at least over the last two years which is certainly picking up pace is the push from individuals involved in the Lower Mainland gang conflict up into Prince George and the level of violence and criminal sophistication that brings with it,” said Wright.
“Those are province-wide and interprovincial networks definitely involved in high levels of violence. The violent gangs pushing up into Prince George has resulted in many of the violent offences, including some of homicides and shootings that we’ve had.”
Prince George has already had two homicides and is on track to equal last year’s eight homicides. By comparison, Vancouver had 15 homicides in 2023. Of the eight local homicides the majority of suspects were out on bail for violent offences when the crime was committed, including some of the 50 people in the city on electronic monitoring.
Downtown Prince George and the Moccasin Flats homeless encampment remain trouble spots. The first homicide of the year happened Jan. 5 when a man was shot inside the warming centre at Moccasin Flats and later died after about a week in hospital. Since then there have been two other shootings in the camp and multiple stabbings.
“For us, Moccasin Flats is the busiest 300 metres we have in town and it will be for some time,” said RCMP Insp. Darin Rappel.
“We escort BC Ambulance in (mostly for overdose cases) for their safety and that’s also true of Prince George Fire Rescue. We are in there multiple times a day. It’s a vulnerable population (of 35 residents) and they are at risk of being robbed and beaten and assaulted. In turn, many of these victims are victimizers themselves, it’s a bit of hierarchy. There’s always somebody bigger and meaner than you around the corner and sooner or later you will be the victim.”
“There’s a significantly high rate of violence and an equally high rate of non-cooperation when we speak to the victims down there.”
Police are seeing a concerning rise in violent street-level crime such as robberies and they are at a loss to find a solution. They recognize that unabated drug use with only occasional mental health and addictions interventions and the glaring lack of residential treatment centres to get people to stop using illegal substances will continue to spike crime rates.
SHOPLIFTING STINGS LEAD TO STORE ARRESTS
The RCMP worked with larger retail outlets to conduct Boost and Bust shoplifting stings using undercover officers and store security to apprehend people stealing items from store shelves and dozens of arrests were made. The sting operations typically involved four or five officers working over one or two days. They’ve seen fewer arrests and fewer repeat offenders, which indicates to the RCMP the program is effective.
Loss prevention officers do have the authority to stop shoplifters but Wright said the police are better equipped to handle making those arrests.
“We’ve seen a very disturbing alarming trend over the last year or two of the brazenness and the level of violence used by these individuals,” Wright. “When confronted they’ll often pull bear spray or knives or needles and threaten these individuals and it can be very dangerous for them. If they’re willing to step in and bring the resources we’re willing to partner with them.”
The RCMP continued to use bait cars and bait bikes to nab habitual thieves.
INCREASED TRAFFICKING LINKED TO DECRIMINALIZATION OF HARD DRUGS
Wright expressed his frustration over the decriminalization of hard drugs by the BC government a year ago which he says has handcuffed police now powerless to stop drug use in public places such as parks or beaches and the front entrances of stores and businesses. He considers that “by far the largest paradigm shift I’ve seen in policing in nearly 30 years.
“It seems ironic that we’re vilifying cigarettes to the extent we do but we’re increasing the availability of smoking methamphetamine and opioids in public,” he said.
“Drug use and mental health issues directly contribute to a significant amount of criminal offences, particularly violent offences. We’ve noticed an increase in a lot of drug trafficking to support the open drug use.”
He said at one point, half of the residents of the former Knights Inn downtown motel, which now serves as a homeless residence, were associated with selling drugs.
The B.C. law was changed to allow government-funded safer-supply medications obtained by prescription as an alternative to illicit drugs in an attempt to reduce the number of opioid overdose deaths. But Rappel said in the past year since decriminalization drug deaths have increased five per cent.
“The year previous we would have interdicted in some of these instances and taken the drugs away because it’s illegal,” said Rappel. “We wouldn’t have charged and haven’t charged in a long time, but it’s an open question as to whether or not with all of those no-case seizures, were we taking away fatal doses of street drugs that we now are not.”
There were 5,796 cases of property crime investigated by the RCMP, down slightly from 2022.
POLICE HAVE LESS AUTHORITY TO DETAIN SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS
Wright told council the province’s policing agency has enacted a policy change which discourages police from confronting an individual wandering the streets at night to check what they were up to and whether they had any arrest warrants or were in violation of court order.
“That used to be a very effective crime-suppression tool, and that has been removed from our toolbox, at least a couple years ago,” said Wright.
Overall, the RCMP in Prince George had 44,881 calls for service in 2023, down from 45,465 in 2022 and 50,182 in 2021. The number of charges forwarded to the Crown dropped to 1,680 in 2023, from 1,993 in 2022 and 2,068 in 2021 which Wright attributed largely to reforms in the criminal code contained in Bill C-75 in 2019.
The prisoner count in the city climbed slightly to a four-year high to 2,950 in 2023.
BC Conservation officer Sgt. Eamon McArthur sat with Wright and Rappel to speak to council about the unprecedented number of bear encounters in the city last year that in some cases also involved the RCMP.
Watch the Citizen website for more on the bear problems that kept the city’s four conservation officers so busy during July, August and September.
