"Take Back Your Criminals!"

[djh]

Link: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/080116/canada/vancouver_bc_warrants

Vancouver police want rest of Canada to take their criminals back

2 hours, 7 minutes ago


CALGARY (CBC) - As many as 2,500 people walking on Vancouver streets are wanted by police agencies in other provinces and an unprecedented effort is under way to get them back to where they allegedly committed their crimes, CBC News has learned.
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Vancouver police have made a list of the people wanted on "non-returnable" warrants and officers walking their beats aim to arrest them and ship them back. With such warrants, the issuing jurisdiction is not willing to pay the transportation costs involved in returning suspects for prosecution.

"We'll be able to track their path across the country. It starts out east in the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies, and you'll see they have warrants in all of these provinces," Const. Steve Addison told CBC News on Wednesday.

The City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police Department have long known about this problem but it's felt most acutely on the West Coast.

"There are a lot of people that we find especially coming to B.C. for the obvious reason. I mean, it's January and you can basically sleep on the street," Const. Dan Petre told CBC News.

"The other reason is this is the last place in the country they [the wanted people] actually don't have warrants," Addison said.

A study conducted by the Vancouver Police Department's Planning, Research and Audit Section in March 2006 shows more than 90 per cent of the "non-returnables" contacted by police said they knew about the warrant for their arrest and 36 per cent admitted to leaving the warrant jurisdiction in order to avoid arrest.

For Petre and Addison, catching these criminals isn't the problem - it's the fact that their home provinces don't want them back.

People wanted on non-returnable warrants often think that being in Vancouver means they won't get arrested and sent back because of the cost involved, Addison said, but Vancouver police are now willing to pay the bill.

Not long after the start of their shift on Tuesday, Petre and Addison found the first name on their list at a seedy hotel in the Downtown Eastside. They were looking for an Adam Croft wanted on several charges in Toronto, the most serious one being assault causing bodily harm.

"It is a small neighbourhood. As you see, people are out and about on the streets. We run into people all the time," Addison said.

"We knew where this fellow lived and we went and checked the registry and he's there. It's just a matter of knocking on the door."

A CBC News reporter and cameraperson went with the officers during the arrest but were not allowed inside the hotel. It didn't take long for the officers to return to say Croft was shocked to learn he was being arrested.

Croft's first reaction was that he's only wanted on non-returnable warrants, Petre said.

"We told him we were going to place him under arrest for a number of warrants in Ontario," Petre said. "We started this new program and try to enforce it and this particular individual that we arrested, he broke down. He was basically distraught."

Vancouver police offered to escort Croft back to Toronto, which would cost about $2,500, Addison said, and Toronto police accepted the offer.

However, a lawyer for Croft told police Wednesday his client decided to plead guilty to all of the charges so there is no longer a need to fly him to Toronto as he will be sentenced in Vancouver. If he's convicted and sentenced to jail, Croft will serve time in B.C.

Vancouver police said they will keep working down their list of people wanted on non-returnable warrants.

[raggedy13]

It's about time they started doing something like this. I knew a lot of people in the Downtown Eastside were from out of the province but I didn't think there was any legal way of sending them back where they came from. That's good news they can do something about it, but it's kind of shitty that we're the ones footing the bill.

I'd be interested to see this posted in the Canada section and see what people from other provinces think.

[bils]

source: news1130.com

Vancouver Board of Trade chips in to rid city of crooks

Friday, January 18 - 07:05:11 PM Jim Goddard

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Enough air miles already to ship 40 crooks out of town.

Bernie Magnan from the Vancouver Board of Trade says they've received more than a million donated air mile points just a day after suggesting the points could be used to ship criminals back to where they're wanted by the police.

He says the idea has generated a lot of interest.

"I was talking to one of my colleagues, for example, at the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, and they indicated to me that their police force is also interested in seeing what happens with this plan," says Magnan.

Vancouver police estimate up to 2500 criminals wanted on "non-returnable" warrants live here but police in other jurisdictions won't pay to have them shipped back.

Magnan says some fine-tuning still needs to take place before the "air miles for crooks" plan can go into effect.

[osirisboy]

good lets send those losers back!!!

[mr.x]

lmao.

[bils]

interesting article from the london free press (london, ON)

Most wanted, and found - in B.C.

Michael Brennan has been on London police's list after an assault with a weapon.

By JANE SIMS, SUN MEDIA

One of London's most wanted fugitives is behind bars in Vancouver and about to come home to have his day in court.

London police sent two officers to the West Coast yesterday to pick up Michael Brennan, 44, who has been on the London police service's Most Wanted list for assault with a weapon.

Brennan disappeared after it was reported barbecue fluid was poured on his common-law spouse in 2004 and that she was threatened with being set on fire.

"He knew we were looking for him," said London police Chief Murray Faulkner.

"I would suspect that shortly thereafter he got on a bus, on a train, or drove out west and has been out there for three years or so."

Brennan was picked up on the weekend as part of a Vancouver police department campaign to crack down on an estimated 2,500 people living there with outstanding criminal warrants in other Canadian communities.

Vancouver police have complained suspected criminals are finding a safe haven there because they've settled in a place far outside the geographical radius placed on their warrants.

Called "non-returnable warrants," the orders are non-enforceable in areas outside the radius.

Brennan's warrant was within a 400-kilometre radius -- the bureaucratic standard for a domestic crime set by the Crown. He was a target in Vancouver's campaign.

Vancouver has offered to pay to send fugitives back to the jurisdictions of their suspected crimes.

Faulkner said police forces across the country are struggling with the issue.

"This isn't just a Vancouver issue. This is a policing issue Canada-wide," he said.

"There are thousands and thousands of warrants on the system across Canada that are outstanding."

Faulkner said London police didn't know Brennan was out west until last weekend, when Vancouver police called.

"This is the first time we've gotten any indication (Brennan was in Vancouver)," he said.

Brennan's charges could have been tried in Vancouver, but he chose to come back.

Before sending officers to pick up Brennan, his warrant radius -- set by the Crown-- was extended by court order Monday.

By then, London police had learned witnesses and investigators were still available for the Crown to proceed with Brennan's prosecution.

Faulkner said Vancouver police were probably willing to bring Brennan to London but, "We did what we thought was right. It's our responsibility. It's our warrant."

Faulkner said London offered Vancouver one of its outstanding warrants living in London deemed to be the most "heinous" -- one of 39 known British Columbia warrants in London, with 14 from Vancouver.

Vancouver police decided it wouldn't proceed with the charges, nixing the proposed prisoner exchange.

It's not the first time London has offered such an exchange as it looks for more economical and efficient ways to handle out-of-region arrest warrants.

Faulkner said the Brennan case highlights the national problem surrounding the exchange of prisoners across the country.

"A lot of it boils down to money," he said, with the price tag often too high to bring people back to their jurisdictions beyond a day's drive.

While the Crown pays a portion of the travel costs, police services are on the hook for the bulk of the bills.

As recently as this week, the provincial attorney-general has directed Crowns to set a minimum 400-kilometre radius on all Criminal Code offences, Faulkner said.

London police have been lobbying for a provincial prisoner exchange system that would include provincial bailiffs and corrections officials.

Instead of tying up police to move fugitives, Faulkner suggested, they could be moved from local corrections facilities and transported to where they're wanted.

Faulkner suggested changes in the way police do business would lead to more successful prosecutions.

"Criminals know if they go far away from jurisdiction, the chances they won't be held accountable is pretty great," he said.

Sources said Brennan has a prior criminal record for domestic violence.

He should be back in London by week's end.

[worldwide]

oh i see, were trying to get rid of our criminals but we wont take our own back? thats setting a good example. i wouldnt be suprised if other cities stopped co-operating with this program after seeing that.

[cornholio]

^I was wondering when someone would catch that. Personally I love it, someone on the VPD payroll deserves a raise. Ship all out of town criminals back to their original city. Dont accept our own criminals back. Side result is that current Vancouver criminals are encouraged to leave the city once theres a warrant out for them. Next thing we know there will be no more criminals:)...in theory.

[bugsy]

Good job Vancouver Police. Now can we start deporting the illegal immigrants who are criminals?

[agrant]

:previous: I believe they do. Problem is these criminals somehow find their way back within weeks.

[mr.x]

DTES crime rate down
Feb, 20 2008 - 10:30 PM

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - The officer in charge of policing Vancouver's downtown eastside says overall crime in that zone has dropped 6.8 per cent over the past year.

In a presentation to the Police Board, District Two Commander, Inspector Adam Palmer, pointed out property crimes are down 7.8 per cent, but violence is up almost two per cent. He says that's partly because 40 per cent of the contacts made in his District involve people with mental health issues, compared to about 30 per cent for the rest of the City.