The province's gang-buster police team was kept busy during their latest visit, but nonetheless called this their quietest time ever in Prince George.
It was the third time in less than two years that the province's Integrated Gang Task Force (IGTF) has dropped in for a blitz on organized crime in B.C.'s northern capital.
There were a lot of shrugs from the various police partners involved in the IGTF's visit over five days up to and including the July long weekend.
"We were involved in just as much intervention, but it was quieter than our previous visits in terms of arrests, seizures, and checks of high-interest suspects," said Sgt. Shinder Kirk, spokesman for the IGTF's boss agency, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. The IGTF is the uniformed branch of this province-wide independent police agency.
"I think people have become familiar with our team being in Prince George so when they hear we are in town, they lay low," said Kirk, as one reason for the decline in activity.
"Word travels fast, and when they started pulling people over and knocking on doors, the gang activity just shut down," confirmed Cpl. Craig Douglass, spokesman for the Prince George RCMP.
The local detachment helped the IGTF on their sojourn to Prince George, as did North District RCMP headquarters and the northern branch of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU-North).
All police units in the area beefed up their long weekend presence, said Douglass, which might also have played a role in the substantially peaceful outcome.
"That's not a bad thing. The purpose of this kind of operation is not necessarily to catch the bad guys red-handed, it is to bring a level of public safety," Douglass added. "If the bad guys stop moving drugs and put their guns away for awhile, that is a victory, just a different kind."
The key event in Prince George over the long weekend was the motorcycle drag races. In the past, it has attracted a large audience from the organized crime world.
"It was nothing like it was in 1998, that was the worst," said Sgt. Raj Sidhu of CFSEU-North. "There was something like 300 outlaw bikers and their associates here for that one. This time? Maybe six, maybe 10 - a big difference."
Perhaps the weather played a role as well. Street crime flourishes in warm, dry conditions but the July long weekend lived up to its cool, wet forecast.
Nonetheless, the IGTF did find people of interest, did locate prohibited weapons and drugs, did make arrests and did gather intelligence for the police work going on after the IGTF left town.
For more on their visit to Prince George, see The Citizen's Special Report in Saturday's edition of the paper.
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