Prince George’s new top cop is targeting violent crime in the city.
Superintendent Warren Brown says PG has traditionally had a high crime rate, with a small number of prolific offenders that, he says “miss-represents” our crime rate by committing a majority of the crimes in the city.
“So, those are the people we’ll focus our attention on, they’ll be intelligence-lead, focused projects to curtail that activity,” he says. “As well, the violent crime, the trends we see are often related to drug and gang involvement.”
Brown says those strategies include the “Prolific offender program” targeting “the worst of the worst”, and working with bylaws to hold landlord accountable, and working with Northern Health on mental health strategies.
When he introduced himself to local media, Brown mentioned the infamous McLean’s Magazine article that called Prince George “The most dangerous city in Canada”, though Brown agrees with his colleagues that things have gotten better.
“I think, when you look at the last number of years, we’ve really reduced our crime rate here,” he says. “The McLean’s article is based primarily on the crime-severity index rate; If you have a murder or two, because of the score that the index provides, it really misrepresents the true picture of crime here.”
Brown was announced to the position back in July and started work earlier this month.
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