Knowing Prince George is about to be rated 2009's number one crime city in Canada by the latest Maclean's Magazine rankings, RCMP and the mayor reacted Thursday - ahead instead of behind the news.
Both Dan Rogers and RCMP Cst. Lesley Smith, media communications officer, pledge that, with community and government support, strong effort will be made to rid the city of crime gangs along with their root causes.
MacLean's usually targets six crime categories in its comparison of cities - homicide, sexual assault, assault, robbery, break and enters and vehicle theft.
They all relate to gang activity and the drug trade, said Smith. "Our increases in crime are related to gangs and other organized crime groups."
Prince George RCMP are fully aware of a number of increases in certain crime types and have been meeting these challenges head on through target enforcement initiatives that have resulted in numerous drugs and weapon seizures and charges against those responsible for violent offences, Smith said during a news conference Thursday.
"During the past year RCMP have seen an increase in the amount of drug and gang activity and therefore have responded to more calls for service regarding property related offences and offences against others. We have also seen a number of successes due to the hard work established by the General Duty members, Drug Task Force, Serious Crime Unit, Crime Reduction Team, Police Dog Services and the Downtown Enforcement Unit."
Like many mid-size cities, Prince George has been targeted the past few years with criminal activity that has moved out of major cities to work out of mid-sized places, Smith said.
"Police are making a difference and working with the community to identify priorities, and the public is responding," said Smith.
She and Rogers are counting on the Gang Summit on Nov. 1 and 2 in Prince George to bring together ideas, ways and means to deal with the gangs.
Rogers said a second key component is to work with organizations that deal with "those in poverty and those - especially youth - who are preyed upon by crime gangs."
"As a smaller community we need assistance to deal with the criminal activity," said Rogers, who hopes to receive help from the provincial and federal governments to help stem the problem.
Here's an excerpt from Maclean's crime ranking story as found on the Internet.
"Prince George indeed has a problem, as revealed in this, Maclean's third annual national crime rankings. It finished with the highest crime score among Canada's 100 largest cities in a measure of crimes committed in 2009. Last year Prince George ranked number four in crime among Canadian cities.
The magazine tells the Prince George story of 25-year-old Darren Munch.
"Munch, whose death, local RCMP say, was "gang-related," was the fifth of seven murder victims in Prince George so far this year, a disturbing body count in a community of just 74,000.
"Six of those murders are tied to gangs or drugs, says RCMP detachment commander Supt. Brenda Butterworth-Carr. Yet, the greatest outrage in the community seemed reserved for The Prince George Citizen, for running a front page picture of Munch's body, sprawled on the pavement in a pool of blood.
"The next day The Citizen ran a gutsy, unapologetic editorial under the headline: "Take a look in the mirror." This is a city in trouble, it warned. "It's only a matter of time, if left unchecked, before the bullets fly across your lawn, before it is your child prone on the pavement, before someone you know goes to jail, or hooks up with a gang."
From these happenings sprung an idea from The Citizen to hold the Gang Summit to which community response has been overwhelming.
