The Real Story on... Fighting Crime

April 1, 2009

Today, NDP Leader Carole James rolled out the NDP’s so-called crime strategy, which consisted of nothing more than plagiarizing the BC Liberal Government strategy announced earlier this year that is already well underway.

British Columbians are concerned about public safety heading into this provincial election. Here are the facts and the records of both parties when it comes to taking real action on crime.

The BC Liberal Record

The BC Liberals have put more police on the beat, more prosecutors in the courtrooms and more resources into jails to find, prosecute and incarcerate criminals.

We’ve funded the creation of new, integrated police task forces, innovative crime-reduction strategies like ‘bait cars’ and are working with the federal government to bring in changes to the Criminal Code. Already, those efforts have paid off with the federal government’s move to eliminate the “two-for-one” time-served credit.

In response to recent gang and gun crime, the BC Liberals have launched a comprehensive seven-point plan:

More police officers –Adding 168 new police officers dedicated to fighting gang violence across BC, including new 16-member anti-gang units in Prince George and Kelowna. The NDP claims these are not new positions – that is completely dishonest and untrue. Carole James and the NDP have also voted AGAINST more than 1,100 new police officers.
More prosecutors – Adding 10 prosecutors dedicated to work with police and prosecute gangs. Combined with 16 existing Crown prosecutors, there are 26 prosecutors dedicated to fighting gang and gun crimes – that’s on top of 49 currently working on organized crime cases.
More jails and secure courts – Investing $185 million to build 304 more jail cells able to hold 600-plus offenders, and we’re working with court services to ensure full use is made of secure courtrooms in Vancouver, New Westminster and Surrey to prosecute violent, gang offenders.
Tougher laws – Pursuing changes to federal law to give prosecutors more power to keep criminals off the street, tighter bail restrictions, eliminating two-for-one credit for time served while awaiting trial, modernizing wiretap rules and simplifying evidence disclosure requirements to expedite prosecution.
Cracking down on illegal guns – Taking steps to assume responsibility over the federal firearms program in British Columbia and create a 10-member “weapons enforcement unit” dedicated to seizing illegal firearms.
Outlaw armoured vehicles and body armour – Working to outlaw modified, armoured vehicles and put in place licensing for the sale and purchase of body armour, including criminal record checks.
New gang hotline and rewards program – Establishing a new hotline and a new escalating rewards program for anonymous tips leading to the arrest and conviction of gang members.

The BC Liberal government has had a plan since 2001 to improve public safety and support law enforcement, with measures including:

Added more than 1,100 additional police officers in communities across B.C. since 2002.
We invest $66 million a year providing 600 provincial and municipal police officers on 10 major integrated teams including: Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit; Organized Crime Agency; Integrated Gang Task Force; and the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Unit.
Created the Uniformed Gang Task Force, which patrols gang activity at the street level. The Task Force made 124 charges, 39 firearm seizures, four armoured car seizures and six seizures of body armour in the last year.
We invested $40 million in PRIME, a data management system used to identify and target criminal organizations.
Created the Civil Forfeiture Law to seize the assets of those profiting from crime. So far, $5.2 million has been obtained from the sale of seized assets.
Launched a $3-million provincial strategy to prevent youth gang violence through education, law enforcement, and youth and community partners.
Return 100 per cent of all traffic fine revenue to B.C. municipalities, providing $210 million in new revenue for local crime prevention and policing.
Created North America’s largest bait car program, resulting in a 47 per cent drop in auto thefts since 2003.

The NDP Record

The NDP record at all levels of governments shows they are soft on crime and soft on criminals:

Carole James’s NDP voted against funding for 1,100 new police, more prosecutors, new corrections facilities, and crime prevention programs.
Carole James and the NDP also voted against giving communities back traffic fine revenue they can use as resources to fight crime.
The NDP government starved communities for funding from, taking away the equalization grant for policing from independently policed communities and refusing to return traffic fine revenues.
The NDP took police officers off the streets and put them into photo radar vans parked on the side of the road, collecting speeding tickets instead of criminals.
The NDP campaigned to shut down construction of a new correctional facility in the Lower Mainland purely for partisan, political reasons.
The federal NDP – which is constitutionally linked to the Carole James NDP – actively resisted the passage of essential tough-on-crime changes to the Criminal Code, setting those changes back years without results.

Compare the records. You decide.