Tories unveil crime remedies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2011 (5143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If he’s elected premier, Hugh McFadyen will spend $4 million on a new training centre for police dogs as part of a wider plan to attack gangs, illegal guns and fraudsters.

The Progressive Conservative leader rolled out the first part of his tough-on-crime platform Tuesday in a playground in west Winnipeg, an area he needs to win if he wants to head up the next provincial government.

He said in the 12 years the NDP has been in office, the province has earned the distinction of being one of the most violent in Canada and the home turf of the Hells Angels and other drug-peddling gangs.

“We’re No. 1 in violent crime in robberies, murder and attempted rape,” he told reporters and supporters. “For the past 12 years, Greg Selinger and the NDP have just rolled over and accepted this unfortunate distinction for our province. I’m here to tell you today that we will not roll over.”

The Tories will do that by re-establishing a gang database for the Winnipeg Police Service — which he claims the NDP cut — and hire 15 new officers for a special firearms enforcement unit.

Plus, a McFadyen government would give investigators with Manitoba Public Insurance’s special investigations unit the same authority as police officers to further go after criminal gangs that specialize in staged accidents and fake claims. Most of the unit is already made up of former police officers.

The Tories would also spend $4 million on a police K-9 centre of excellence for city police so more police service dogs could be trained for municipal police agencies around the province.

The NDP was quick to point out most of McFadyen’s tough-on-crime agenda rings hollow, saying the outlaw biker problem had its genesis during the 1990s when the former Los Brovos and Quebec Hells Angels began courting.

Former justice minister and Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh said the city police unplugged the gang database in 2002 because of operational reasons and had nothing to do with government.

He also said three successful gang cases — undercover operations that saw the hierarchy of the Hells Angels and their underlings locked up — demonstrate police have ample intelligence about who’s who in the gang zoo with out a local database. Also, the internal Canadian Police Information Centre already serves as a database for known gang members for police across the country.

“To see that come up more than eight years later is odd and desperate,” Mackintosh said, adding the NDP most recently supported the city police cadet program and AIR 1, the new police helicopter.

Earlier in the day, Selinger said the NDP has put “more organized criminals in jail than any other government in the history (of Manitoba).

“Clearly there’s more work to be done but we won’t be soft on people who are taking advantage of others,” Selinger said.

Selinger also promised to hire more police officers, but said the details of that announcement would come later in the campaign.

McFadyen was more definitive.

He said he will make funding for 30 new police officer positions in the province permanent. Those positions are now paid by Ottawa, but only for five years.

The Tories would also speed up the hiring of 53 new Crown prosecutors by one year, and hire five more to handle gun cases. The NDP announced last year the 53 positions would be phased in over six years.

Some of what McFadyen offered in his $4.6-million Safer Communities platform wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. That includes using social media like Facebook to profile the most-wanted offenders in Manitoba. The RCMP already have a most-wanted web page for suspects across Canada as do Winnipeg police for suspects in the city.

— with a file from Larry Kusch

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Gerrard touts rec

Floor hockey. More floor hockey.

That’s one of Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard’s answers to keeping kids away from crime.

A Liberal government would put $4.6 million toward community centre programming and the hiring of more recreational directors to keep youth occupied and off the street, Gerrard said Tuesday outside Northwood Community Centre on Burrows Avenue.

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“For every 57 young people who are playing hockey, that’s 57 young people who are not in gangs,” Gerrard said.

The Liberal pledge includes more focus on community centre development in high-need areas like in the inner city, so youth can development ethics, teamwork and discipline.

The city and province over the past year have announced improvements to almost 40 city community centres under the $10-million Building Communities Initiative, but Gerrard said not enough attention has been paid to programming.

Gerard Allard, a city police officer and provincial candidate in St. James, said what’s also missing is new community club development in the North End.

“There’s the Andrews Street drop-in, but that’s a drop-in centre. Governments have been really great at building drop-in centres because it’s minimal cost and there’s less need to put in programming,” he said.