After 12 shootings in 16 days in the Metro Vancouver area, the RCMP is calling on the public to do more to assist police stem the wave of violence.
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen said officers can only do so much to crack down on the gang violence epidemic.
"I wouldn't say the area is under policed, but certainly we could use additional resources," he said. "We're trying to engage the public because we cannot do this ourselves.
"This is not about more police on the street necessarily, this is also about the public becoming engaged in a problem that they need to help us solve."
Thiessen aimed his plea specifically at those who may have some association to "these killers who are involved in gang activity."
He encouraged those with information about gang activity to come forward to police.
"They have come forward, we have received many valuable tips so far, but we certainly could use more," Thiessen said. "We are encouraging them to come forward and have a good hard look, to think, 'Are we part of the solution or part of the problem?'"
He also seemed to aim his comments at the parents of the young men involved in the drug trade.
"When you have a young 20-something living under your roof . . . .that doesn't get up in the morning but is driving a $100,000 car and wearing a $1,000 suit and has a pocketful of cash, you have to question where that money is coming from," Thiessen said.
He said that police can "help" those who come forward with information.
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has insisted that his government is providing enough money to combat the shooting spree even as Attorney General Wally Oppal said that he's concerned about cuts to his ministry.
But Oppal said he didn't think the cuts would delay the Crown's cases and that the government will continue to make fighting violent crime a top priority.
"Disorganized" violence
The rash of violence in the Vancouver area is a result of "disorganized" and "reckless" gangs that have exploded in the province over the last decade, a criminology professor says.
Prof. Darryl Plecas of the University of the Fraser Valley said the number of gangs in B.C. has grown from about a dozen ten years ago to more than 100 today, a growth fuelled in part by an expanding drug trade.
He told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday that the violence stems from the fact the gangs are poorly organized, filled with young recruits and have easy access to weapons.
"They're loosely organized, disorganized, with young members not having much structure at all," Plecas said. "And of course with all of that comes a recklessness and, of course, if the availability of guns goes with that, then it's a recipe for disaster."
Law enforcement officials in the Vancouver area are struggling to deal with an explosion of violence in their city that has seen two people killed in two days.
On Tuesday, a man was shot dead and another wounded after two men reportedly entered a basement apartment at a home in south Vancouver.
Vancouver Police Const. Lindsey Houghton said that 24-year-old Shane Allan Messent was killed and another man is recovering from being shot. Police did not say if Messent was in the home or was one of the alleged home invaders.
A suspect was taken into police custody Tuesday night in Surrey B.C.
On Monday, 23-year-old Nicole Alemy was gunned down in her Cadillac in Surrey, B.C., while her four-year-old son was riding in the back seat. He was unhurt.
Police have not confirmed that either event is gang-related. But police said four of six shootings in early February were likely linked to drug or gang activity.
According to Plecas, the provincial government has announced a number of measures to deal with the spike in violence.
The province will hire more prosecutors, add more intelligence analysts and hire more police officers, he said.
"That's important because up until now, police have only had the capacity to deal with about 30 per cent of gang activity," Plecas said.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the city's police department is too small to get a handle on the violence. He says it needs 475 more police officers to bring its staff in line with the Toronto police and 875 more to compare in size to Montreal's force.
He told reporters on Tuesday that "we are hundreds and hundreds of police officers short of what the other big cities in Canada have to combat gang crime and in particular we as a region we do not have the police officers we need.
"We don't have the co-ordination of a metro police force. How many killings does it have to take before we deal with gangs as a metro police force?"
With files from The Canadian Press
