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TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2011
❚SURREY
Robinson will run for council under SCC banner Ted COLLEY Staff Reporter
SURREY – Former Surrey city councillor Gary Robinson is back in the game. Robinson is one of a number of council candidates elected at a weekend nomination meeting of the Surrey Civic Coalition, a left-wing civic slate with strong ties to the NDP and trade unions. Robinson served six terms on Surrey council between 1987 and 1999 with the now defunct Surrey Civic Electors slate. Now executive director of the Realistic Success Recovery Society, he returned to civic politics in 2008, running unsuccessfully for council as an independent. “It’s great to be running with SCC. It’s basically a descendant of the SCC; they both look out for the interests of the people of Surrey and I really believe Bob Bose needs some support on council,” Robinson said Monday. Bose, a veteran councillor and former Surrey mayor, holds the SCC’s sole seat on council. All eight remaining seats are held by Mayor Dianne Watts’ Surrey First slate. Joining Robinson on the council slate are Rina Gill, Grant Rice and former SCC president, Stephanie Ryan. Both Gill and Rice mounted unsuccessful bids for council in 2008.
see SURREY CIVIC page 3
INSIDE:
Helen Chapman, who turns 100 this month, looks back on 83 years living in Surrey. Page 11.
Crime analysts in Surrey are winning the ‘chess game’ against crime by predicting when and where a crime might happen ❚PHOTO/Kevin Hill by analyzing crime patterns and identifying hot spots throughout the city and matching descriptions.
❚RCMP ANNIVERSARY
Staying one step ahead of crime By Tom Zytaruk
E
ver see that movie Minority Report? It’s set in the future and features three psychics, or “precogs” who help police catch bad guys before they actually commit their crimes. Just science fiction, of course, but there are some striking similarities between the film and what Surrey RCMP’s eight crime analysts are doing today – 60 years after Mounties took over policing duties in Surrey.
The eight, led by Lakhpinder Takhar, help predict when and where a crime might happen in Surrey by analyzing crime patterns, identifying hot spots throughout the city and matching descriptions and modus operandis. They then supply district commanders with the info they need to deploy resources where they’re needed. “You can see, statistically, if there was a rash of metal thefts, or vehicle thefts or a series of violent assaults, where these crimes are being targeted, these hot spots, you can see as we deploy members to these identified hot spots that typically those numbers will go down because of the officer presence in these hotspots,” Cpl. Drew Grainger notes. “These hotspots are all identified by crime analysts determining where these crimes were occurring.” They do this by sifting through daily logs and keeping a close eye on the nitty gritty in certain cases. It’s an exhaustive process in a city with 651 Mounties who are dealing with hundreds of files every day. But for Takhar, playing Sherlock is a labour of love. “I’m one of them people who can say I’ve got the best job in the world,” he grins. It’s all about trying to help solve mysteries, from metal thefts to dusty old homicides. “It’s definitely challenging because you’re open to so many events. One of my first predictions that I did, the time, day everything, I thought this is going to happen. “So you’re waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and it doesn’t happen. And you think maybe
INSIDE: ❚ Surrey RCMP looks to make 60 years by preserving its history. Page 15 ❚ A look back at a historic ‘bad day for crime’ in Surrey. Page 17 ❚ What’s coming up in the next decade for Surrey RCMP? Page 17 that’s a good thing anyway, then you find out the criminal is in hospital, so...” The analysts sift through the daily complaint files, crunch down the info and enter it into a database, then map things out, searching for common themes. If everything works out, voila! A trend is identified. “You’re looking for patterns – anything you can link together,” says Takhar, who was a crime analyst in the U.K. before coming here. Before that, he worked in finance. “If you think of it as chess, there’s a strategy that the criminals employ. We have to try to look at that strategy and see if we can figure out the next move.”
see ANALYST’S page 18