COST OF GANG WAR TOPS $6M

'It's A Big Number,' Say Calgary Police

Fighting gangs and organized crime in Calgary cost authorities at
least $6 million last year, and officials say that figure represents
only a fraction of the real cost.

The dollar figure represents the salaries and benefits of Calgary
Police Service investigators assigned to the Alberta Law Enforcement
Response Teams, a group of provincewide integrated units that target gangs.

In 2008, the provincial government contributed $5.4 million and
Calgary police paid $575,000 for approximately 40 city police
officers working under the ALERT umbrella in units such as the
Southern Alberta Gang Enforcement Team, the Southern Alberta
Marijuana Investigative Team and Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta.

But it's much harder, officials said, to determine how much money
Calgary police spend internally on day-to-day, front-line efforts
against gangs.

"Every enforcement option we have has a role in gang stuff," said
Supt. Roger Chaffin of the criminal operations division.

"That ($6 million) doesn't begin to cover those costs. It's a big number."

Patrol officers conduct traffic stops on gang members, drug and vice
cases often involve organized crime groups, and many surveillance
operations target their members -- none of which are covered by the
$6-million tab that pays for the ALERT units.

"It's almost impossible for us to answer," Chaffin said.

The cost and complexity of gang investigations became evident Monday,
when city council approved a request by police for an additional $1 million.

The money--which will be taken from a $5-million reserve fund
designated for the red-light camera program--will pay for a variety
of policing initiatives, but city officials said the request was
partially driven by high costs associated with gang investigations
such as overtime.

Calgary Police Commission chairman Denis Painchaud said
investigations are becoming more expensive and complex as organized
crime groups in Calgary increasingly operate outside the city, the
province, and even outside Canada in some cases.

Police have focused much of their efforts on an ongoing war between
two Calgary gangs, FOB and the FOB Killers, that has been responsible
for at least 25 homicides since 2002.

Gang investigators have publicly linked members of the FOB Killers
with the United Nations gang based in B. C.'s Lower Mainland, and FOB
is known to have ties with the Crazy Dragons, an Edmonton-based group.

Although the city recently committed$ 25 million to hiring an
additional 200 recruits, a Calgary criminologist said that boost
won't have an immediate impact, unlike this week's $1-million
injection for organized crime and other investigations.

"Police don't have an opportunity to say,'We're going to take six
months to train 25 new individuals in this area,"said Doug King of
Mount Royal College. "We should expect when we have flare-ups and
have increasing gang activity that we have to pay more money to get
the police to do what we want them to do."