May be time to toughen punishments for youth involved in violent crime, says police chief
Posted Mar 2, 2022 11:12:00 AM.
Is it time for Canada to reopen the Youth Criminal Justice Act? — This region's top cop suggests it is.
Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin said this region, and others, have been seeing a rising number of violent crimes involving youth, “and it is concerning, I will certainly flag it as a concern.”
The Chief touched on the subject during a monthly appearance on CityNews 570's “The Mike Farwell Show.”
He said the police services board is set to consider this week an updated youth engagement strategy.
He said police used to be able to be more engaged with youth through local schools and continue to look for new ways to make that connection now that is no longer possible.
“We can't forget that [police] are often very reactive in nature, but there's a great opportunity here to engage our community in long-term solutions so that we actually prevent what we're seeing,” Larkin said.
Despite that effort, Larkin, who is also President of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, suggests it may also be time to look at modernizing the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
“Particularly for indictable offences, where a young person can be tried as an adult,” he said. “We see that particularly in homicides to serve as a deterrent.”
Larkin believes both police and the justice system are realizing there are areas which need to be modernized.
“Much of our legislation is written at a point in time, and then carries on for a period of time, and then needs changes,” he said, pointing to cases involving threats on social media as an example of the way technology alone has drastically changed the way police solve crimes.
“More than half of our criminal investigations involve some form of technology,” Larkin said. “We look at doorbells, we look at dash-cams, we look at black boxes in cars and trucks, we look at video cameras.”
Larkin adds it's not just the Youth Criminal Justice Act which needs updating.
He's also advocating for a modernization of the Criminal Code.
