Pubdate: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 Source: Abbotsford News (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Abbotsford News Contact: http://www.abbynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1155 Author: Rochelle Baker Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police) POLICE CHIEF PROMISES SAFEST CITY IN B.C. Police Chief Bob Rich Is Promising To Make Abbotsford The Safest City In British Columbia. Rich has a new strategic plan which will not only address gang crime and violence, but also property crime, serious car crashes, domestic violence, police response times and street disorder. The rash of shooting incidents last week only highlights the need to suppress gang crime, said Rich. "I believe dealing with gang crime and violence is the number-one policing priority of Abbotsford and all [departments] in the province." Public safety is the main concern, said Rich, referring to the recent attempt on alleged gangster James Bacon's life where bullets flew through a busy intersection in broad daylight. "The greatest fear any one of us here has is that an innocent person will get caught in the crossfire. We want to do all we can to reduce the chances of that happening." The number of gangs in the Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland has doubled in the last five years, he said. "Instability has increased, and the proliferation of handguns among [gang members] has also greatly increased." There were six homicides in Abbotsford in 2008, three of which were linked to gang violence or the drug trade. The Abbotsford Police drug squad is going to go after gangs involved in violence and disrupt their business, said Rich. The APD will continue to work with and provide members to the provincial integrated units such as the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT), the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force, and Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), which targets and investigates the enterprises of organized crime. However, Rich said the integrated units need more resources to combat gang violence and organized crime effectively. "Resources assigned to the integrated units haven't kept up with demand. We need more officers in those units, and more Crown counsels and court capacity to deal with resulting charges," he said. "However, I also realize what a difficult request this is during the middle of an economic downturn." The APD's new strategic plan was devised and approved by the police board in the fall. Besides suppressing gang crime, goals include reducing property crime by 30 per cent in three years, and reducing fatal or serious crashes by 10 per cent in 2009. Property crime is a persistent problem in Abbotsford, accounting for 75 per cent of all crime. Rich said the department's new crime reduction unit (CRU) formed in 2008, focusing on prolific offenders, is a significant step in combatting property crime. Another goal is to address domestic violence, which is a difficult problem to resolve, he said. Domestic violence often goes unreported, and if reported, it's difficult to get through court. "It's been shown that having police that continue to focus on and work with the victim significantly improves the success rate in dealing with the offender." Rich also plans to improve officers' response to calls for service, aiming for the policing standard to respond to priority one calls within a seven-minute window. The challenge is finding the right balance between officers on patrol able to respond to calls, and those mandated to work on the department's goals. One trick is to make better use of patrol officers, and a patrol efficiency study is being done. Half of APD officers are tied up in patrol, responding to calls on average 80 per cent of their time. Rich wants officers spending closer to 50 per cent of their time responding to calls. Along with more violent crime, the APD wants to deal with street disorder, or the visual signs of crime. "People openly selling or using drugs, aggressive panhandling, prostitution. . . . If you were to survey the public and ask the citizens what distresses them, they would say these things make them feel unsafe," he said. "You wouldn't want your 10-year-old son bicycling down the street to have to deal with it." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom