Streets Getting Safer!!!!!!

[M. Lafontaine]

North American streets getting safer

Homicides and violent crimes fewer in 1997, but fraud
and theft increase as criminals look for easy money

Saturday, January 3, 1998
By Isabel Vincent
Crime Reporter

It may well be the safest time in decades to walk the streets of many
major North American cities, but you'd better be really careful when you
park your car or use a credit card.

That's the story borne out by criminal experts and 1997 crime statistics
that show a steady, and sometimes marked decrease in homicide and violent
crime rates in many major North American cities, but a significant increase
in commercial crime such as drug trafficking, car theft and fraud.

An economic upturn coupled with better policing may have discouraged violent
crimes throughout North America in the last year, but they have had little
effect on just about every other criminal activity, crime experts say.

"Why are we seeing an increase in commercial crime? Quite simply because it
is easier to do than other kinds of crimes," said Sergeant Bryan Boulanger,
a spokesman for the Edmonton Police Department, where officials were swamped
with fraud and property offence cases.

"You don't have to get a gun to rob a bank. Now we're looking at an increase
in things that are much more difficult to patrol,such as fraudulent credit
card use."

Sgt. Boulanger said Edmonton police have seen such a significant increase
in commercial criminal cases that the turnaround time for investigations
now averages between three months and two years.

"What we are seeing is a huge increase in property offences and frauds,
" Toronto criminal lawyer John Rosen said. "The homicide rate in this
country is pretty steady and for the last 10 years it's been pretty
much declining, but there seems to be a lot of pressure out there to
make easy money."

In Canada, homicide rates in the most populous cities either decreased
in 1997 or remained stable compared with rates for the past several years.

Police in Montreal reported 49 homicides in 1997 down from 54 in 1996.
The decrease was attributed to a concerted effort by Montreal police,
the RCMP and the Quebec provincial police to work together to solve
homicides and prevent others from happening, said Constable Michel
Fontaine, a Montreal police spokesman. Of the 49 homicides committed
in Montreal almost half were related to the war between rival
motorcycle gangs, which claimed 21 lives last year, Constable Fontaine
said.

Similarly in Edmonton, where police found that many of last year's 22
homicides were committed as a result of family disputes,police launched
the Family Protection Service Division, which paired police officers
with social workers to monitor severe cases of domestic abuse that
they feared might end in homicide.

Edmonton police also instituted a program two years ago whereby officers
investigating a disturbance or crime can seize children if they are
deemed to be in any sort of danger,such as from adults who have been
drinking or using drugs.

In Toronto, police reported 61 homicides in 1997, which represented a
2-per-cent increase over 1996.

"Homicide rates throughout North America have plateaued since about 1975,"
said Neil Boyd, professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University
in Vancouver.

He added that the generational impact of such events as the Vietnam war,
the hippie movement and the expansion of illegal drugs led to a boom in
homicides in mot Western countries'cities between 1966 and 1975.

However, Prof. Boyd said greater economic and political stability has
led to a decrease in violent crime.

"But we can't draw too many inferences about Canada's crime rate declining
just yet,"he said."We have to examine things like changes to police
procedure and the courts,and remember that the statistics we are seeing may
be influenced by other factors."

For instance, in the 1980s the RCMP decided to curtail their efforts to
apprehend marijuana users in Vancouver, and go after distributors instead.
This resulted in about half the rate of convictions for drug users but did
not necessarily mean that drug use was down in the city, Prof. Boyd said.

Moreover, Ontario Provincial Police recently reported a 20-per-cent increase
in drinking and driving offences in the province in 1997. But many speculate
that the increase reflects recent crackdowns on impaired driving.

"When we look at the statistics we must remember that they do not reflect
crime as experienced by Canadians but crime as it is reported by and to
police," he said.

Other critics cite cutbacks to law enforcement organizations throughout
the country as a factor in weighing crime statistics.

"There is more going on out there than ever gets reported," Toronto
criminal lawyer Randall Barrs said, adding that cutbacks to law
enforcement in areas such as commercial crime are contributing to the
increase in these types of crimes.

"Police simply don't have the budgets to do sophisticated surveillance
of large-scale drug trafficking and theft operations in this country,"
he said.