Latest news with #streetcrime
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Business group 'cautiously optimistic' over $5M B.C. public safety program
British Columbia has launched a new $5 million public safety program aimed at reducing robbery, shoplifting, vandalism, property damage and other non-violent street crimes in high-traffic business areas. Terry Yung, minister of state for community safety and integrated services, said the program is a "direct result" of feedback from police and the business community across the province. "We heard loud and clear what they wanted," Yung told Friday's news conference in Vancouver. "Street-level crime such as theft, robbery [are] undermining businesses and making it sometimes untenable for them to be around." Yung said the initiative will help police address repeat offenders, building on the work of the "highly successful" Specialized Investigation and Targeted Enforcement program, which is aimed at stopping those who commit violent crimes. WATCH | Retailers call for crackdown on street crime: Retailers call on government to address public safety crisis 2 years ago Duration 2:02 In Vancouver, he said the specialized investigation program contributed to a 27-per-cent decrease in violent crimes in the Hastings Crossing area of the Downtown Eastside and a 45-per-cent drop in violent assaults involving weapons in the Gastown neighbourhood. The minister said the B.C. RCMP is administering the new Community Safety and Targeted Enforcement program and police departments across the province may apply for funding by submitting proposals for reducing non-violent street crime. The province has allocated up to $5 million to launch the initiative, though Yung said the money is "a start." The B.C. government will continue to support policing while waiting for results from the program before deciding the next steps, he said. "But that doesn't preclude other investments the province is making in terms of housing, in terms of health care, mental health, drug addiction treatment, poverty reduction and other social service agencies that we're funding," he said. "We can't just arrest our way out of crime ... We have to look at the undercurrents of what [is] causing this to happen." B.C. public safety officials are also "watching carefully" as the federal government considers bail reform to address repeat offending, Yung added. "We are looking forward to seeing what concrete changes are coming from the new government," he said. A statement from the province said the program will provide police with "enhanced tools, technology and investigative resources to curb property crimes." It will also support police as they develop co-ordinated operational plans that involve businesses, outreach teams and social services, the statement said. RCMP Chief Supt. Wendy Mehat told the news conference the new program is "a step forward" and another tool for police to use in combatting street-level crime by repeat offenders that is "eroding a sense of safety" in communities across B.C. She said police departments may seek funding to increase patrols in areas with high levels of retail theft or to address drug trafficking in downtown areas. Mehat said the initiative supports a "combined response" to crime, including connecting people in crisis with supports. Bryan Tepper, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Surrey-Panorama and Opposition critic for community safety and integrated services, said he welcomed the extra funding for police, as a former Mountie himself. However, he questioned whether more funding for police alone would help address street crime, saying that more funding should have gone toward a court system that is struggling to process the high volume of cases coming its way. "They're not sentencing people to anything that is going to deter in the future, or that's going to help people with their ... drugs and addiction and mental health issues," he told CBC News, calling for bail reform to deal with repeat offenders. Retailers welcome program The general manager of loss prevention with London Drugs, Tony Hunt, also took part in the announcement, saying crime was "driving fear into families and workers" and threatening the viability of jobs and entire neighbourhoods. "Retail and service workers who make up the backbone of our country's labour force are facing aggressive behaviour, organized retail crime, and both violent and non-violent repeat offenders," he said. Retailers are "spending more than ever before" on security, he added. Hunt said he welcomed the province's new safety initiative as a "meaningful step forward" in supporting local efforts to reduce crime and build community safety. Kalith Nanayakkara, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said that an average small business spent $5,000 over the last three years to deal with vandalism and street crime. "Last year, 57 per cent of small businesses in B.C. were impacted by crime in some way," he told CBC News.
CTV News
4 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
B.C. launches public safety program aimed at stopping non-violent street crime
Pedestrians cross East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, on Thursday, June 13, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck VANCOUVER — British Columbia has launched a new public safety program aimed at reducing robbery, shoplifting, vandalism, property damage and other non-violent street crimes in high-traffic business areas. Terry Yung, minister of state for community safety and integrated services, said the program is a "direct result" of feedback from police and the business community across the province. "We heard loud and clear what they wanted," Yung told Friday's press conference in Vancouver. "Street-level crime such as theft, robbery (are) undermining businesses and making it sometimes untenable for them to be around." Yung said the initiative will help police address repeat offenders, building on the work of the "highly successful" Specialized Investigation and Targeted Enforcement program, which is aimed at stopping those who commit violent crimes. In Vancouver, he said the specialized investigation program contributed to a 27-per-cent decrease in violent crimes in the Hastings Crossing area of the Downtown Eastside and a 45-per-cent drop in violent assaults involving weapons in the Gastown neighbourhood. The minister said the B.C. RCMP is administering the new Community Safety and Targeted Enforcement program and police departments across the province may apply for funding by submitting proposals for reducing non-violent street crime. The province has allocated up to $5 million to launch the initiative, though Yung said the money is "a start." The B.C. government will continue to support policing while waiting for results from the program before deciding the next steps, he said. "But that doesn't preclude other investments the province is making in terms of housing, in terms of health care, mental health, drug addiction treatment, poverty reduction and other social service agencies that we're funding," he said. "We can't just arrest our way out of crime ... We have to look at the undercurrents of what (is) causing this to happen." B.C. public safety officials are also "watching carefully" as the federal government considers bail reform to address repeat offending, Yung added. "We are looking forward to seeing what concrete changes are coming from the new government," he said. A statement from the province said the program will provide police with "enhanced tools, technology and investigative resources to curb property crimes." It will also support police as they develop co-ordinated operational plans that involve businesses, outreach teams and social services, the statement said. RCMP Chief Supt. Wendy Mehat told the news conference the new program is "a step forward" and another tool for police to use in combatting street-level crime by repeat offenders that is "eroding a sense of safety" in communities across B.C. She said police departments may seek funding to increase patrols in areas with high levels of retail theft or to address drug trafficking in downtown areas. Mehat said the initiative supports a "combined response" to crime, including connecting people in crisis with supports. The general manager of loss prevention with London Drugs, Tony Hunt, also took part in the announcement, saying crime was "driving fear into families and workers" and threatening the viability of jobs and entire neighbourhoods. "Retail and service workers who make up the backbone of our country's labor force are facing aggressive behavior, organized retail crime, and both violent and non-violent repeat offenders," he said. Retailers are "spending more than ever before" on security, he added. Hunt said he welcomed the province's new safety initiative as a "meaningful step forward" in supporting local efforts to reduce crime and build community safety. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025. Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press
The National
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Will London be safer this summer as a result of crime sentencing changes?
Britain's street crime will intensify following a tranche of reforms aimed at easing overcrowding in prisons, The National has been told. With jails dangerously crammed, the Ministry of Justice has decided on a series of changes to prison tariffs that will allow violent criminals and sexual offenders to be released early. Fewer criminals would be put behind bars and more will serve sentences in the community, while judges could be given more flexibility to impose punishments such as football or driving bans. Short sentences of less than 12 months would also be scrapped, apart from exceptional circumstances, after an independent sentencing review led by former justice secretary David Gauke recommended an overhaul. With the probation service under severe stress, failing to lock up criminals posed a 'real danger' on the streets of London and risked other cities becoming crime hotspots, said Robert Buckland, who was the Justice Secretary from 2019 to 2021. 'I really don't think that we should be letting out violent and sexual offenders earlier without very good justification,' he said. 'This should not just be for good behaviour, but concrete evidence that they're making progress and that they don't present the risk of reoffending.' The current Labour government has condemned the 14 years of Conservative rule during which it claims just 500 prison places were added while the prison population nearly doubled. The latest projections showed that jails will be 'bust within months' and 9,500 places short by early 2028 without drastic action, said Shabana Mahmood, the current justice secretary. Latest figures show the prison population in England and Wales is 88,103, just 418 below the record of 88,521, which was reached on September 6. The only way to end the crisis was to build more prisons, with the government promising £4.7 billion to make 14,000 places by 2031 in what it promises will be 'the largest prison expansion since the Victorian era'. 'If our prisons collapse, courts are forced to suspend trials, the police must halt their arrests, crime goes unpunished, criminals run amok and chaos reigns,' Ms Mahmood warned. 'We face the breakdown of law and order in this country.' When the government came to power in July last year it inherited dangerously overcrowded jails just as race riots broke out across the country leading to more than 200 convictions. This forced the new government to give early release to a number of non-violent offenders to free up space. That was a temporary measure and led to Mr Gauke being asked by Labour to undertake to a full review that reported on Thursday. The government has now accepted his recommendation to reduce time served for those convicted of 'standard determinate sentences', such as burglary or drug offences it also includes certain violent and sexual offences, but not rape. Those criminals will now serve just one third of the sentence in jail, a third on probation and the final period without supervision. But Mr Buckland argued that there was a 'danger of people out in the community who aren't going to be properly supervised' and the lack of supervision element 'rings alarm bells'. His concern was that on the streets of London there was now an increased chance of dangerous violent reoffending, such as muggings and sexual offences 'that the public need protection from.' Mobile phone theft in London has reached what has been described as 'epidemic' levels, prompting the Met Police to step up undercover operations. Police data shows that in the year to April, 75, 105 mobile phones were stolen across London, an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year. The new proposals, said David Jones, the former Conservative Welsh Secretary, were 'manifestly not making the streets of London or the UK safer' and that 'arguably, it's going to make things a lot worse'. He was also concerned about the early release scheme, 'because prison should be a deterrent and the longer the sentence the bigger the deterrent'. Mr Buckland also argued that the probation services were 'under huge pressure' and its chief had warned that 'without proper resourcing this won't work'. The former minister pointed to the work that the probation service did for young offenders in recent years that has seen the under 18 prison population plummet from more than 3,000 to just 500. The government has now pledged that it will increase funding for the probation service, rising by £700 million to £2.3 billion in three years. However, think tanks in favour of prison reform suggested that early release could well lead to less repeat offending. 'The three things that stop people reoffending are family relationships, secure housing and employment,' Andrea Coomber, a barrister and chief executive of the Howard League, told The National. She argued that to reduce crime it was better to have people serving 'an element of their sentence in prison and then the rest in the community' where they can be supported. 'The 'tough on crime' thing sounds great, but it doesn't work,' she added. 'A prison governor recently said to me, punishment sounds fantastic, and I wish it worked, but unfortunately, it doesn't because punishing people is inherently inconsistent with rehabilitating them.' The Prison Reform Trust's chief executive Pia Sinha argued that the reforms were a 'once in a generation opportunity' to reset sentencing and reduce reoffending. He supported the government's move away from giving sentences under 12 months labelling them 'pointless short spells in custody' that blocked cells and did not reduce reoffending. However, Mr Jones argued that the 12 month rule was 'basically a charter for shoplifters' that was telling thieves 'you can pinch as much as you want and you will not be put in prison'. Mr Buckland suggested it would take just 'one crisis' with a serious reoffending to occur for the public to turn against the early releases and 'the aims of these reforms will be utterly lost in an understandable backlash'.
