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MLA Report: Time to act against prolific offenders

Last week crime in our communities made headlines once again when a prolific high-risk and repeat offender worked his way through the courts and managed to stay out of jail despite 21 more recent charges laid against him.
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Lorne Doerkson is MLA in the Cariboo Chilcotin riding.

Last week crime in our communities made headlines once again when a prolific high-risk and repeat offender worked his way through the courts and managed to stay out of jail despite 21 more recent charges laid against him.

I know how frustrated each and every one of us has become — particularly with the recent events of senseless vandalism and graffiti in 100 Mile House. And everyone is well aware of the recent rash of thefts and property break-ins in Williams Lake and throughout our whole riding.

In response, Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb and every single member of the city council have repeatedly written to Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, specifically requesting the reinstatement of Electronic Monitoring Devices so that we can at least have some manner of protection from prolific high-risk and repeat offenders.

Like my counterpart at the federal level, MP Todd Doherty, I am backing Mayor Cobb, city council and Williams Lake RCMP Insp. Jeff Pelly and the numerous constituents calling for something to be done to better protect the public. People need — and naturally expect — to feel secure in their own homes and shouldn’t have to worry about a break-in while they are at the grocery store.

I know RCMP detachments throughout our region are making this issue a strategic priority because too often high-risk or repeat offenders are free to offend again and again. Think of the number of precious police resources that could be saved if we were not chasing after the same individuals all the time.

I have been talking to many victims in communities across the Cariboo and the message is clear — the current approach to tackling property crimes by repeat offenders is simply not working.

Electronic monitoring offers the tools and technology necessary to track the movement of repeat offenders.

The time has come to act.

Electronic monitoring discourages repeat offenders from resuming illegal activity because a convicted offender will know that his movement will be recorded, and it will directly link them to any crime location at any given time.

If technology can curb criminal activity and help protect residents and their property from theft… then what?

We must advocate for legislation that will change the outcome of these arrests. We need to be working together at all levels to finally end these frustrating outcomes that continue to threaten our rural communities.