Thanks, Mr. Hanger. I think you and I go back many years—you won't remember—30 years ago in Alberta.
It is my pleasure, first, to introduce Sergeant Larry Butler, and then I'll take whatever time is left after Larry finishes.
Larry is a 27-year veteran with the Vancouver Police Department. He is in charge of our Outlaw motorcycle gang unit and our gang crime section. He has been in the criminal intelligence field for 12 years, and he is recognized in at least two levels of court as an expert in testifying on Hells Angels and Outlaw motorcycle gangs. So you have a unique opportunity to...I don't like the word “grill”, but ask him any questions you think appropriate, and he'll tell you the street-level version of what we have to deal with.
As just some background, we're the Vancouver Police Department. We police simply the city of Vancouver. We have 1,200 officers and we police Vancouver's 44 square miles. It's one of the smallest, densest communities in Canada. Similar to Montreal, we are what we call an “urban centre”, where offenders come from outlying jurisdictions to work and partake of our entertainment districts late at night, and our population balloons.
With no further ado, Sergeant Butler.