Canada's RCMP Commissioner weighs in on rural crime/prolific offenders

Canada's RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says resolving rural crime and prolific offender issues are near and dear to heart. She notes she was district officer in Thompson, MB, when she initiated a program that directly deals with these problems.

"I started the Crime Reduction Enforcement Support Team (CREST). It focused on how about 10 per cent of the people cause 90 per cent of the problem," explains Lucki. "It's really keeping our eye on that, holding them accountable to what they do, and making sure that that 10 per cent is kept accountable to the crimes that they are performing. If they're on parole, they need to be accountable. If they're on conditions, they need to be accountable, and so it's just making sure that they adhere to the conditions. And if they don't, then they'll be dealing with the RCMP."

She says enforcement is the number one need to see a decrease in prolific offenders' crimes.

"It's also working with our prosecutors to look at, and maybe there are legislative changes," says Lucki. "Maybe there's a way that we can work better. Maybe there's something that we're not doing that's helping the prosecutors. Maybe the prosecutors need to do things differently. So maybe putting us all in a room together and rolling up our sleeves might be one of the solutions."

Lucki notes the SERT (Strategic Enforcement Response Team) operation that recently took place with 36 charges is one fo the means by which they're dealing with problems along with CREST. 

"That's some of the things that they do," notes Lucki. "They'll have targeted enforcement in activities. They might have warrant roundups where people who are on warrants are targeted. They'll go to an area and they'll bring everybody in that's wanted on outstanding warrants. Again, they're not following the rules, so there's a warrant out for them. That's where problems can exist. By taking those people and putting them back into the system, so that they can be held accountable, it's just one step toward taking them off the road. And when we do that, we find things calm down in the area."

She adds they get a lot of information through the warrant roundups that help them solve other crimes, making it a very positive law enforcement activity.