Thanks! That was a helluva' read!
Did make the VPD look a bit "Keystone Cop-ish", though.
Through the years I have had a very good working relationship , and still volunteer in community office work. Those were the dark years, the old guard who saw prostitutes and addicts as criminals. They were resistant to the serial killer idea from the outset, to be fair it was hard to make a case. They had no bodies, no witnesses, and no pattern. Women simply disappeared. Adding to that, the trade itself makes for a difficult investigation as co-workers don't remember much, are often too loaded to be of any service, and they tend to have transient life styles.
In the end of the 70 plus women reported missing, years of work also revealed many had left the business were living elsewhere, had died of natural causes and in one case was living a few blocks away, had gotten clean and sober. So they had a lot working against them.
However that old guard was also a problem on the street, using what we call American policing, jail, jail, jail for small offenses to "keep order" in a hell where order doesn't exist [Vancouver's street problems are concentrated all in one ten block area called The Downtown Eastside]. They failed to grasp the issues.
As a result there have been some changes, and the new Chief, Jimmy Chew is a Vancouver born lifetime cop who has revolutionized the force, documenting that most of the work they do is not "crime" related at all, but is actually mental health work, enforcing regulations, traffic, patrolling with some emergency response and investigation at the low end. They have brought in new techniques, gotten rid of all fatal and near fatal techniques, Tasers are banned, and they are putting key people through mental health training. They have a special squad of cops and medical people and work in tandem with EMT's.
Where they were simply moving the disorder around, now they have reduced it, and brought management. By recognizing [through my group] that addicts here aren't addicted to one substance, but anything they can get, they can allow pot sales and concentrate on the hard drugs.
We have also reformed the courts and brought in a community court system with impact and working in concert with Insite, the safe injection site, the street teams we are bringing and forcing a lot of druggies into treatment. I travel there at least twice a week, and I have seen the difference.
But then our whole country has different policing. Except for where the Mounties are in charge [morons with guns on horseback still] it is very laid back. Unless its an issue, police don't act on petty stuff, kind of a no harm, no foul on traffic laws; what you don't want to ever do is introduce violence with them. Your day ends fast and ugly at that point.
eace
