VANCOUVER — The irony was obvious to Deputy Chief Doug LePard. Vancouver police put up a confessed chronic offender yesterday to help make the case that the justice system is failing to deal with such people properly.
For about four years, police have been routinely interviewing incarcerated chronic offenders in an attempt to figure out what makes them tick, and also to warn them that investigators are monitoring them.
The effort is managed by four members of the force's chronic-offenders unit, who conduct interviews with the permission of the offenders, but focus less on specific crimes than trends and issues that brought the individuals into the system.
"It's simply geared to give us a better understanding of this group of people we are trying to manage and deal with," Inspector Rob Rothwell told a news conference yesterday.
Deputy Chief Le Pard said that police are "not alone" in seeking longer sentences for chronic offenders. "Our support came from the last place we would expect," he said.
That was an anonymous offender who turned himself in on a breaking-and-entering charge and, over the past weekend, had a few choice words about the justice system that he delivered to a member of the chronic-offenders unit, who recorded the conversation on video. Police released three minutes of the video and a 27-page transcript covering the entire interview.
The 32-year-old lifelong criminal, who claimed to commit three break-ins a day in Vancouver before being voluntarily incarcerated, called the B.C. court system "a joke."
"They are too lenient. They're too light. That's just how I think, that's how I feel. The crimes that I've committed, I should have gotten a lot more time," he said.
"I'm sure if I wanted to I could go to court and get bail," he said. "They'd say, 'He 'fessed up to it,' you know, 'Just let him out.' I guarantee they'd let me out."
All of this was another bid by police to hammer home the view, first outlined by Chief Constable Jim Chu last week, that action is needed to deal with the city's worst chronic offenders, who tend to be lightly sentenced for property crimes fuelled by drug addiction even when they have up to 30 convictions.
Chief Constable Chu said police are monitoring 379 chronic offenders, 27 per cent of whom are "superchronic" offenders with 77 convictions or more. He asked for significant sentences for those with more than 30 convictions.
Deputy Chief LePard said yesterday Vancouver is facing a problem unprecedented in the world. "Nowhere else in the world and nowhere else in history has a community had to face this kind of problem," he said.
"We've contacted jurisdictions around North America and other places as well, and we've looked at the research on this, and we do not find people with records like this for more than 30 convictions in other jurisdictions because they are in prison."
He did not release evidence to back up his position in yesterday's interview.
The offender central to the news conference that provided police a forum for renewing their calls for action did not seek a decreased sentence, nor was he offered one, but insisted on having his identity concealed.
The self-described "chronic offender" called conditional-sentence orders imposed by the courts "a joke," especially in the downtown core.
"It's ridiculous. Look how many people come in and out of those doors," he said, referring to the courts.
The offender, a proponent of long-term counselling to deal with addictions, offered no specific ideas on reforms, but said change is crucial.
Insp. Rothwell pointed to the justice system.
"Collectively, the justice system is doing a lousy job of protecting the public," he said, calling for judges to be given tools to better sentence chronic offenders.
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