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Gazette magazine
Point Blank
Dealing with violent street gangs
Today’s street gangs have one common brand: violence, marked by increasing gunplay and a near complete disregard for those who get caught in the crossfire. As gangs take hold in communities big and small, police and community partners are developing innovative responses to gangs’ often random behaviour.
Letter from the Editor
Ganging up on a growing concern
Street gangs are active in all of Canada’s major cities — including Toronto and Winnipeg, where the gang-related killings of two innocent bystanders in 2005 shook the Canadian public — but they are also taking hold in our medium-sized municipalities, suburban communities, Aboriginal reserves and rural towns.
Cover Section
Every night of the week, two Uniform Gang Task Force teams patrol the streets, clubs and bars of Vancouver and over 20 surrounding communities. The teams visit some 30 establishments a night. They’re on the lookout for gang members, gang associates, gang vehicles, weapons and broken curfews.
Steering youth away from street gangs
Talk to any gang investigator, and you’ll learn that enforcement is only part of the solution to any gang problem. Police and community partners must also focus on gang prevention — particularly among youth at risk for gang membership.
Street gang activity in Canada is no longer just an urban phenomenon. Gangs are moving beyond the big cities and taking hold in smaller, more remote communities.
Police forces in northwestern Ontario have formed an integrated front against growing gang activity in Thunder Bay and outlying areas.
As a sociology student in 1989, Sudhir Venkatesh began a research project unlike any other: he met a Chicago street gang leader and was allowed to spend almost 10 years observing the gang’s activities — including crack sales, extortions, beatings, drive-by shootings and outright gang war.
Much has changed in the past three years with respect to our understanding of
street gangs in Canada. Today, robust guns-and-gangs units are a staple of most major police agencies.
The late 1990s leading into the new millennium was a volatile period on the streets of Toronto. This escalation in firearms use and gang-related activity was the catalyst for the Toronto Police Service to embark on a series of pilot projects and focused task forces to address the problem head-on.
Legislation to combat organized crime, along with the proactive approach adopted by law enforcement agencies and the increasingly successful prosecutions of organized crime cases, has resulted in a greater number of gang members or affiliates serving sentences of two or more years in federal penitentiaries.
Tony Moreno, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Department, explores the ways in which police in any community can succeed in preventing and disrupting street gangs.
While the gang phenomenon is yet to be fully understood, the investigation of gangs and their membership presents enormous challenges. It is clear that gang members espouse a unified ideology and comprise a brotherhood within a section or clica of the gang.
Although not identical, both France and Canada are seeing some trends that are at least comparable. The two countries have experienced an increase in gang development and crime that is now perceived as commonplace.
In Vénissieux, a city of 57,000 inhabitants located just outside Lyons, France, some 20,000 residents live in a sensitive housing project (cité) called Les Minguettes. The French National Police, along with political and institutional authorities, remain steadfast in their efforts to grapple with the youth gang problem.
How are street gangs evolving in your city?
News Notes
British Columbia (B.C.) police have a new tool in their traffic enforcement arsenal: automated licence plate recognition (ALPR).
RCMP officers in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, used to deal with over 3,500 cases of public intoxication each year. Now, a volunteer outreach program called the Community Service Patrol (CSP) has relieved them of some of that burden.
Canada is no longer an easy source for pirated films that supply global markets, thanks to new legislation introduced in June 2007.
G8 countries and Interpol have successfully tested a fledgling electronic network that will allow their forensics laboratories to instantly exchange and search hundreds of DNA profiles that may be related to major international crimes.
Q & A
The RCMP’s newest Commissioner
In July 2007, the RCMP welcomed its first Commissioner from outside the force: William J. S. Elliott, A former lawyer and senior-level bureaucrat with extensive experience in public safety and security issue.
Just the Facts
Human trafficking
of victims worldwide are forced, coerced or deceived into lives as prostitutes, manual labourers, domestic workers — even organ donors and child soldiers — and traffickers are cashing in big-time.
Featured Submission
According to a 2001 study in the journal Preventive Medicine, police officers were called to the scene of 50 per cent of domestic violence homicides. As a law enforcement community, we can respond to these statistics by turning them into opportunities to save the lives of potential domestic homicide victims.
When an officer is the first to arrive on the scene, his or her approach and subsequent actions can make the difference between a conviction or an acquittal in court. This article offers some guidelines for first responding officers on what should be done at a crime scene to reduce the possibility of losing or destroying evidence, or having it ruled inadmissible in court.
Best Practice
Youth crime reduction through intervention and diversion
The Ottawa Community Youth Diversion Program program provides police officers with the tools to identify young offenders who are at low or moderate risk to re-offend.
On the Leading Edge
Latest research in law enforcement
The following are excerpts from recent research related to justice and law enforcement. To view the full reports, please visit the website links at the bottom of each summary.
From Our Partners
Operation Sabot
Good partnerships ensure successful missions. For eight years, RCMP Cpl Jean-Louis Rompré has been flying drug eradication missions aboard Canadian Forces Griffon helicopters as part of Operation Sabot. Operation Sabot is the Canadian Forces code name for military support to RCMP-led marijuana eradication operations across Canada.
Virtual Library
More to explore on fraud from
the Canadian Police College Library
Books, articles and websites from the CPC Library, the Departmental Library for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
