Make parents responsible for their misbehaving kids and dish out sterner penalties. That is how councillors from small-town Saskatchewan would handle crime.
The mayor of Zenon Park was applauded for his comments at a Nov. 26 meeting in Saskatoon of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association that discussed community policing. Allan Georget said “cops spend too much time in court. We need them on the street.” He also urged heavier fines or jail terms for criminals.
At coffee break, two councillors from eastern Saskatchewan said crime is a growing problem. Richard Zurburg of Esterhazy said parents must be made more accountable. Mark Hintz of Churchbridge suggested stiffer penalties, especially when offenders are caught in their first crime. Hintz said a teenager stealing cars should be stopped after the first one before he goes on to steal 89 others.
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“Vandalism comes and goes. It’s a breakdown in family values.”
Hintz said if children are not taught right from wrong by the time they are four, then when they’re 14 they may be in jail and “someone else is teaching them.”
Several police officers speaking at the meeting said service has changed because of budget cuts and the need to be more effective as technology changes crime. One said the justice system might need to be more selective about which cases go through the cumbersome court process.
Police and justice department officials told the SUMA delegates that joining with communities and using Neighborhood Watch and Crime-stoppers can head off local crime.
Murray Sawatsky, of Saskatchewan’s justice department, said the provincial and federal governments are putting money into grassroots programs to deal with the social ills at the root of crime – poverty, racism and low self-esteem.
Saskatchewan has had 75 proposals under a five-year, $750,000 program to set up community projects. The provincial money focuses on changing the attitudes of youth. Ottawa has marked $7.5 million a year for innovative demonstration projects and another $2.3 million annual fund to help communities develop crime prevention tools. The focus is on youth, aboriginals and teaching women self-protection.
But not all crimes originate in the community; sometimes they invade from the outside. This is common with telemarketing frauds, pyramid schemes and computer fraud, said RCMP sergeant Ray Ruiters of the Saskatoon commercial crimes unit.
Target the elderly
Most telemarketing frauds come from Montreal and they focus on the elderly, who tend to be more trusting and have money. The most common pitch is for the cheap gift, said Ruiters.
“Someone calls and says you’ve won a prize. All you have to do is send us $49.95 or order some pens.”
The target thinks it is not a lot of money and sends a money order. A cheque is never wanted by the caller because it can be cancelled or traced. Instead of getting a television set, the victim is mailed a TV fridge magnet. Other pitches ask the person to send money to pay a customs department fee to get their gift or to assist the police or bank officials in catching a criminal employee.
Businesses can also be targeted. The criminals send phony invoices for photocopier toner after acquiring information such as machine serial numbers or bosses’ names by talking to receptionists.
Ruiters said it is difficult to crack telemarketing cases because they often originate out of the province and the victims are reluctant to admit they have been scammed.
Pyramid schemes that sell a position on the chain of the company and not a valid product are illegal. Computer fraud may become the crime of the future as technology expands. Common computer crimes are child pornography, hate literature and theft of people’s passwords and modem access to bill long-distance calls.
