VPD forced to change definition of chronic offender
Posted January 23, 2013 4:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There are so many chronic offenders in Vancouver that police have had to create their own definition to keep their caseload to manageable levels.
That still leaves hundreds to keep a watch over.
Vancouver’s Chronic Offender Unit currently has 345 offenders in its police database.
Each of those people has committed 12 offences within a year.
But Sergeant Bill Pake, who heads the unit, says the number of chronic offenders could be as high as 800. “In the literature, when you look at it, most agencies will look at five offences (in a year). When we did that, that’s where we came up with the 800 offenders.”
Police say 88 percent of their chronic offenders are male, and 66 per cent don’t have a regular home.
“It’s widely acknowledged that 80 percent of all crime is committed by five to 10 percent of criminals. These are our chronic offenders,” says Pake.
The police chronic offenders unit is made up of one sergeant, six detectives, and an administrative assistant.
