May 12, 2005
SURREY – The NDP would leave our communities unprotected and our families vulnerable to crime, said Solicitor General Rich Coleman, BC Liberal candidate for Fort Langley-Aldergrove.
Speaking with Surrey’s BC Liberal candidates at the site of a former crack house, Coleman said that Surrey has decided that it isn’t going to let crime win, and is fighting back by hiring police officers with more than $2.5 million from traffic fine revenues. Coleman compared the BC Liberal government’s public safety record with the NDP’s appalling lack of attention to and comprehension of crime.
"The NDP platform is 73 pages long, written in 10-point font, has seven blank pages, and the only time they even mention policing is to commit to share traffic fine revenues with municipalities, a move the BC Liberals already made in September 2004," said Coleman. "At best, the NDP don’t have a plan. At worst, they don’t care about the safety of our families and our children."
In contrast, the BC Liberals are integrating policing, creating specialized teams of officers that work across municipal borders solving homicides and auto thefts, fighting Indo Canadian gang violence and crimes along the Sky Train route, and tracking known sexual predators. As a result, the homicide solve rate has increased from 50 percent to 80 percent in just two years. Surrey’s auto thefts have decreased 20 per cent since the bait car program was introduced. The Integrated Gang Task Force is up and running, and test runs of the Integrated Sexual Predator Offender Team (ISPOT) show great success in protecting our children.
"Our plan is working," said Coleman. "Auto thefts are down in Surrey, more homicides are being solved and we are reducing organized crime as a result of working with directly with law enforcement agencies to implement strategies that effectively combat crime. Criminals don’t stop at municipal borders, and neither should police. The BC Liberals will continue to work with the RCMP and municipal police forces to keep our communities safe."
A BC Liberal government will increase funding for policing by $90 million in the next three years, and will hire 215 new police officers for small communities. Larger municipalities received a total of $41 million from traffic fine revenues last year for local public safety priorities. The BC Liberals have protected funding and improved programs for victims of crime, and fund one of the most generous legal aid programs in Canada.
