With new funding from the city, Vancouver Police Department launched Task Force Barrage on Feb. 13th. Since then, 197 weapons have been seized by officers in the neighbourhood.
Insp. Gary Hiar said the weapons confiscated included real and imitation firearms, tasers, heavy handled tools like pick axes and sledgehammers, and many concealed knives designed to fit around knuckles and cause maximum damage in a fight.
“When individuals are carrying something of this nature and they’re able to clench it in their fist, now they have the opportunity to punch someone or slice them or cut them,” said Hiar. “It’s very concerning, I’m not going to lie. I was pretty shocked by the seizures myself.”
In the first month of Task Force Barrage, police seized 258 per cent more weapons per day than the month previous.
“The Downtown Eastside might be the hardest place to police in the entire country,” said Hiar. “It’s definitely a big problem to tackle, but it’s a problem that we are willing to take on and tackle. We’ve got the resources now, we’ve got the funding, and we are going to make an honest effort at it. We do believe that this will make a difference. Any time we take one weapon off the street, that’s one person that isn’t going to have harm against them.”
The inspector says many of the people who were arrested in the last month are repeat offenders.
“It is frustrating at times to be in a position where we put all that work into it and individuals are being released within hours or days, after all this hard work went into pursuing criminal charges. But we stay the course and we’re going to continue to do our part,” said Hiar.
The task force has funding to continue for the next 6 months.
