Our chronic offender program is a popular one in Vancouver because it's non-stop action. Believe it or not, when we want to “surveil” an individual, we usually begin the surveillance at the court house, because at least we know that's where they're going to be, because they're showing for a court case. Many times it takes about five or six blocks before they either steal a bicycle or they do something. We've engaged two or three specific crown prosecutors who have the same passion we do in this, and they bring the cases forward to the courts.
To the question of whether it makes a difference to take chronic offenders off the street, it makes a huge difference, because that means that small community is safe. For our serial bank robbers, when we pick up a bank robber, we usually clear between eight and fifteen bank robberies at a time. The banks are safe and the tellers aren't traumatized. What you see on TV, where an offender will draw fifteen, twenty, or thirty years in jail, which you might see on bank robberies, it doesn't happen. There is joy in heaven when a two-year sentence is given for armed bank robbery.