Mayor, police chief seek end to 'catch and release' of criminals

Calgary's mayor has asked the city's police chief for a report on the frequent re-arrest of offenders after five shootings in the city in four days.

Dave Bronconnier, who will be attending a meeting of big city mayors in Ottawa Thursday, said he will be asking his colleagues to help him lobby for tougher laws to prevent repeat criminals from being released from custody pending trial.

"We are seeing this 'catch and release' of criminals far too often in our community," Bronconnier said in a news release.

"The evidence is overwhelming.We need to compile it, and then engage the federal and provincial governments and the judiciary for change.

On Tuesday, Calgary's new police chief blamed the justice systemfor escalating gang violence in the city.

Chief Rick Hanson pointed to the extensive criminal records of four people arrested in connection with a shooting Friday as an example of how courts need to get tougher.

"One of those people that were arrested has three prohibitions, two lifetime prohibitions for firearms, and a 10-year prohibition for firearms," Hanson told a news conference Tuesday. "So tell me, when are they going to start keeping these people in jail?"

'We should be ashamed that some of these criminals are making so much money from crime and from drug trafficking that they're living in our high-end districts.' —Rick Hanson, Calgary police chief

Hanson, who is finishing his first week on the job, said judges need to hand out longer jail sentences to drug traffickers and gang members.

Police say four of the five shootings since Oct. 5 are gang-related.

• Early Friday morning, a man was found shot in the stomach and thigh in the southeast community of Dover. Four men have been charged.
• On Friday evening, an 18-year-old male arrived at a medical clinic for a gunshot wound to his leg after reports of gunshots in the 1900-block of 36th Street Southwest.
• A house on Del Rey Crescent NE was hit by shotgun bullets at 4 a.m. Sunday morning. No one inside the house was hurt.
• On Sunday evening, two men working in a garage in the northeast got into an argument. One pulled out a gun which went off during a struggle, hitting the other man in the leg.
• On Thanksgiving Monday, two men were shot by a passenger in an SUV as they stood in a driveway in the suburb of McKenzie Lake. They're recovering in hospital.

Hanson said both victims of the last shootingwere well-known to his force's gang unit and that he wasn't surprised to hearit happened ina wealthy southeast community.

"We should be ashamed that some of these criminals are making so much money from crime and from drug trafficking that they're living in our high-end districts," Hanson said. "And in many cases, they're well liked in the community."