Chief LaBarge's challenge

Marijuana grow-ops, illegal firearms and street racing among his main priorities

Youth crime, marijuana growing and peddling, clandestine racing, illegal firearms are the main problems that the chief of the York Region Police intends to tackle. These are public safety issues, of course, but also challenges for a rapidly growing area, where a multiethnic and multicultural social fabric is developing. "Our region," declares Chief Armand LaBarge, "is undergoing a period of strong demographic growth and urban development. This entails several problems that must be addressed in a most timely fashion: I'm thinking, for instance, of the road network that must grow with the traffic load; and of the problems linked to public safety. From my standpoint, however, these can be regarded as problems but at the same time as challenges and opportunities. The York Region is developing fast, embracing multiculturalism and respect for diversity."
As regards public safety, the agenda of Chief LaBarge has at its top the fight against marijuana growing operations and - especially in urban centres - against clandestine massage parlours. "Over the last few years," continues LaBarge, "we have gone to a more aggressive stance in combating these two phenomena. As far as grow-ops are concerned - both indoors and outdoors - the main issue is the feeling of insecurity of the neighbours whenever such an operation is discovered. There is also another issue: it is well known that there is a strong correlation between marijuana growth and sales and the exponential growth of the crime rate. For this reason we fight this activity relentlessly, with state-of-the-art technologies, such as infrared scanners that allow us to measure inside temperatures from outside a building, a significant clue to the presence of indoors grow-ops."
"The diffusion of clandestine massage parlours is also worrying us, and we are fielding officers, tools and resources to combat them. Quite often we find minors working there."
Despite the opposite impression left by the recent tragedies that shocked two quiet communities like Brantford and Markham - family massacres carried out within their own homes - violent crime in the York Region has been steadily declining for several years. "Such crimes have gone down in both 2004 and 2005," underscores LaBarge, "while sexual crimes and robberies are on the rise. Unfortunately, in the past weeks we have witnessed two terrible tragedies that naturally attracted the attention of the media."
Clandestine races are also a problem for this region. "We have been working on this for years," remarks LaBarge. "In the past, people have lost their lives in such senseless challenges. I would like to dispel a commonly held misconception: these races do not involve only youth, but also, quite often, middle-aged people."
Inevitably, the conversation drifts to the ongoing investigations on the Ianiero murders. "We have recently finished interviewing the 16 people who went to Mexico with the Ianieros. The information we collected have been passed to the RCMP and Interpol, which co-ordinates the efforts of Canadian police with those of the Mexican magistrates. Our first concern, however, has been with giving assistance to the family of the victims."

Publication Date: 2006-04-02
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=6126