Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.
I am the officer responsible for the RCMP criminal intelligence program in the province of Alberta.
Alberta's organized crime landscape has changed rapidly in the last 10 years, in part due to our prosperous economy. The economy has also resulted in a population influx from across Canada and around the globe.
With this, we have seen an increase in the ethnic diversity, complexity, and numbers of criminal organizations in Alberta. As part of the globalization, there has also been an increase in organized crime's scope of operations, with national and international connections being the norm. There are presently 83 organized crime groups identified in the province of Alberta.
Organized crime was once found mostly in major centres of our province. As a result of enforcement pressure and economic opportunity, they've expanded into rural areas and communities across the province, including areas such as Brooks, Lloydminster, Fort McMurray, and Grande Prairie. An example is a group of central east Africans who moved from Toronto and elsewhere to establish themselves in Alberta communities. This group has been involved in a range of offences, including assaults, weapons offences, drug trafficking, and murder.
The majority of organized crime groups have some level of involvement in the production, distribution, and importation and exportation of illicit and controlled drugs. This includes the movement of precursors, grow operations, and clandestine labs. They also are involved in a multitude of other criminal offences, including: counterfeit goods and pharmaceuticals; money laundering; prostitution; firearms trafficking and importing; vehicle theft; counterfeit currency, payment cards, and travel documents; diamond smuggling; human trafficking; illegal gaming; frauds; commercial thefts; and corruption and intimidation of officials.
When it comes to organized crime, our policing challenges are many, with sophisticated approaches to corruption of law enforcement, border personnel, corrections staff, lawyers, clerks, regulatory agency staff, airport staff, couriers, truckers, private security agencies, and whoever else can gain them an advantage. Also, there's the intimidation of those involved in the criminal justice system, primarily witnesses, but including prosecutors, judges, police, and corrections officers. Then there's technology, which is used to thwart investigative efforts and to have the ability to facilitate crime from great distances anonymously, as is often the case in mass marketing frauds, counterfeit payment cards, identity theft, and travel documents.
The lag time in passing legislation to keep pace with the criminal trends and new technology is exemplified by the need for the proposed lawful access legislation, the increased complexity of investigations, the length of time required to investigate, the volume of evidence required, the need of highly specialized skill sets, the onerous judicial requirements, and the lengthy, complex prosecution of organized crime.
Organized crime groups conduct operations and move between multiple jurisdictions, using the different laws to impede law enforcement's ability or to create difficulty in obtaining evidence, sharing information, and conducting investigations. Organized crime recognizes no borders and exploits territorial models. There's also the disclosure of police investigative techniques through the court process and, subsequently, the sharing of these techniques among the criminal element.
How do we deal with these challenges? We start by ensuring that our limited resources are strategically focused on the criminal organizations that are doing the greatest harm and are vulnerable to enforcement activity. This requires a robust and timely intelligence process to identify the threats, vulnerabilities, and opportunities to assist in establishing the enforcement priorities, including common national platforms for the information and the ability to share and access the needed organized crime information.
The ability to share information must include government agencies and industry, both domestically and internationally. We need to ensure that we utilize appropriate enforcement strategies and partnerships. We must integrate police resources with other enforcement entities and prosecution personnel, and we must strengthen partnerships with government, industry, and communities, utilizing trans-jurisdictional partnerships and non-territorial enforcement models to reduce duplication and overcome jurisdictional challenges.
We need the appropriate police resources--namely, capacity, specialized skill sets, and experience--to deal with the complexity of these investigations. This includes the right equipment and legislation to be able to exploit technology, capture evidence, minimize the risk to investigators and the investigation, and reduce wasted effort. We need to be innovative and ensure that we are employing best practices in our investigative and prosecution strategies. We need the appropriate prosecution team with the right skills, experience, and equipment, and the capacity to support the investigation and manage lengthy and complex trials through the court system.
Police alone cannot tackle organized crime and gangs. We need more engagement and commitment from all levels of government and the public. I can't say enough about the strong engagement and commitment of our provincial government in Alberta to deal with these issues.
Examples of this support include: the creation of several new integrated enforcement initiatives over the past five years that are directed at giving police additional capacity to focus on organized crime and gangs; provincial legislation to facilitate enforcement, including civil forfeiture, soft body armour and armoured vehicle regulation, and provincial witness protection; a law enforcement framework where police, in conjunction with government, are identifying non-territorial models to reduce duplication and leverage resources through integration and sharing of common services; and the development of a multi-pronged cross-ministry gang strategy to reduce the impact, membership, and prevalence of gangs.
Within the RCMP, we've been involved in developing a province-wide aboriginal gang strategy and the creation of the Hobbema Cadet Corps, both of which are designed to reduce the impact, membership, and prevalence of aboriginal gangs.
We have integrated border enforcement teams working with partners in Canada and the United States.
Police in Alberta are using intelligence to lead their enforcement activities and it has been shown that we are working on the right priorities. The police members in Alberta are integrated in a number of areas, including under the auspices of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, ALERT. They have built strong partnerships with enforcement agencies across the province, country, and internationally.
In addition, we routinely work with prosecution services, both federal and provincial, to ensure that strong investigative and prosecution strategies are in place.
One aspect that is outside of our control and requires the engagement and commitment of government are the enhancements to legislation that are needed to ensure that law enforcement will be effective in dealing with organized crime.
There are some areas that create challenges in the investigation and prosecution of organized crime.
One is the need for lawful access legislation to allow police to keep pace with changing technology and criminal use of technology. Another is enhancing the ability to share with police information from government agencies and industry, domestically and internationally. The current environment is one of fear of sharing information, due to either legislative restrictions or human rights concerns.
Another area is the facilitation of access to financial records and complex testimony from non-accused in complex financial investigations. The current legislation creates significant investigative barriers and results in extremely lengthy investigations.
The current low threshold for disclosure creates a significant burden on police and prosecution in the way of costs, resources, and time. Disclosure law is used to identify police investigative techniques to the criminal element, compromising investigations and safety. There's a need to establish a well-defined and consistent threshold for relevant disclosure and for the courts in embracing electronic technology. This could be accomplished through enacting disclosure requirements and procedures.
We work closely with government, industry, and other law enforcement to create safe homes and safe communities in Alberta and across Canada. I am pleased to have been provided this opportunity to present to you. I'm confident that the work of this committee will be of benefit to all Canadians.
Thank you.