(This
column was published in the North
Shore News on
Nov. 17, 1999)
Crime
fighters frustrated
By Leo Knight
A
long-time North Vancouver Mountie has been selected as one of
the unit leaders for the new organized crime fighting agency,
OCABC, which is being headed by another former North Van cop,
Bev Busson.
Mike
Littlejohn, who spent much of his career here on the North Shore
in the drug section, also worked with Busson previously in the
Okanagan.
He
rejoins her in the new agency created from the ashes of the
Coordinated Law Enforcement Agency (CLEU).
While
these are good moves, there is still something wrong with what
has been going on with the fledgling agency.
CLEU,
you'll remember, was dismantled by the attorney general a year
ago following the so-called "Owen Report" into its
operations. The report led to the firing of former director
Peter Engstad (and his subsequent reassignment to the aboriginal
treaty negotiation process) and the announcement of a new
organization.
Last
spring, with a flurry of fanfare, Ujjal Dosanjh announced the
appointment of Busson, a former RCMP assistant commissioner and
then the commanding officer of "F" division in
Saskatchewan and the highest-ranking female officer in the
force. Busson was tasked with coming up with a plan for the new
agency tailored to fighting organized crime in the new century.
While
a virtual one-man band in the early days, Busson found herself
embroiled in the tricky world of police politics, long a
hindrance to getting anything accomplished and a singular point
of concern in the Owen report.
As
the head of a joint forces operation, Busson needs the
cooperation of both senior management of the RCMP in B.C. as
well as the backing of the municipal chiefs of police, mostly
that of the largest municipal department, Vancouver.
Busson's
first problem was to hire a second-in-command, and that's where
the first delicate political manoeuvring had to occur.
The
hierarchy of the Vancouver Police Department would never accept
a Mountie-dominated agency and, likewise, the RCMP have an
inherent distrust of "Munies" and balk at taking
direction from someone who is not one of their own.
Busson interviewed a number of very qualified candidates but in the end made the only decision she could from a political point of view and selected VPD Insp. Peter Ditchfield as her adjunct. This ensured the requisite support of Vancouver PD and given Ditchfield's long history in working Asian gangs and subsequently heading up the VPD's Strike Force and Gang Unit, should have been readily accepted by the RCMP.
But treading through the minefield of inter-agency politics is not Busson's only problem in bringing life to a new organized crime intelligence and enforcement agency. The politics and general ineffectiveness of CLEU lingers on as she tries to get operations going.
In
fact, Engstad was the only significant casualty. To this day,
there are senior management staffers, as responsible as Engstad
for the impotence of the once exceptional organization, still on
the payroll. Going to work each day with nothing apparent to do.
Sources tell me they are being paid in excess of $75K a year,
complete with taxpayer-provided vehicles and expense accounts
and have little more to do than read the daily papers and make
nice-nice with their secretaries.
Additionally,
the bureaucrats have stuck their pointy-heads into the process.
OCABC
needs a building to work from.
In
the world of organized crime investigation, the premises needed
must be in a highly secure, yet low profile environment. It must
have a number of specifically designed features such as a wire
room, a secure area designed for the interception, analysis and
transcription of electronic surveillance.
Thus
far the bureaucrats have looked at a number of properties to
house the new agency, including the former municipal building in
Ladner and a host of others.
A
deal has apparently been struck for a former fisheries building
on Annacis Island and several hundreds of thousands of dollars
have been spent to make the property usable for the agency. In
spite of that there will be no wire room. At best this will only
be a temporary fix. Despite the money being spent, the
bureaucrats in the AG's office are still looking for a permanent
solution to the property conundrum.
And
what of the former CLEU building, purpose-built for housing a
large organized crime fighting agency? Apparently that's still
up in the air. The last word was the Ministry of Children and
Families will use it as a base of operations for their
ham-handed functions. One wonders what those tyrants might do
with wire intercept capability?
While
all of this nonsense is going on, organized crime is flourishing
and laughing at the feebleness of the police.
For
several years now the efforts of the men and women at the sharp
end of the fight have been hampered by the incompetence of
senior management, bungling bureaucrats and self-important
empire builders.
Busson
has assembled a strong team so far. But with all the politicking
and bureaucratic bungling, she is still a very long way from
initiating the first investigation. Meanwhile, the attorney
general is busy mired in the dirty politics of an NDP leadership
bid. Nero fiddles while Rome burns.
Is
it any wonder Vancouver has become the North American focal
point for Asian organized crime? Is it any wonder the Hells
Angels in B.C. have become the wealthiest in the outlaw
motorcycle gang world while virtually untouched by law
enforcement?
The
answer, unfortunately, is no.
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