In Part 1 of an exclusive Global News series 'Disarming Edmonton Gangs,' we look at a special unit created by Edmonton police to tackle gun and gang violence.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.Global News is taking a deeper look at the efforts to disarm organized crime in Edmonton with a new series exploring the Edmonton Police Service's Gang Suppression Team. Lisa MacGregor gives a preview of Part 1 on the noon news.
The GST unit started rounds early on the Friday of the long weekend this past June. Their 12-hour shift begins at restaurants, bars and hotels.‘The “agent status” program permits police officers to remove anyone who presents a public safety risk at places like bars or restaurants if the business owners agree to take part in the program.
“They have a list of like the who’s who that shouldn’t be in restaurants, in bars, out in public, right? And then for us, like me, we do our best to keep our staff safe but there’s only so much we can do,” Wiredu said.“There’s always innocent bystanders that get involved, which isn’t fair. The quicker you can escort someone out of a bar, the less likely they are to commit a crime in the bar.”As of October 2023, Edmonton has recorded 33 homicides and 19 of them involved firearms.
Even just driving up along Calgary Trail, the GST team has come across some well-known subjects meeting in parking lots.“This just so happens to be one of the guys that’s associated to the ongoing criminal investigation that we did for drug trafficking for the other investigative team,” Ferry said.Despite the criminal history, there’s a relationship building. The interactions are friendly, police simply making their presence known.
GST builds relationships with everyone they encounter: the owners, security, even the regulars, with the hope of helping one another. “He’s got some criminal stuff that we’ve got to make sure he’s compliant with but otherwise, he’s intoxicated, belligerent and he just picked a fight inside. That’s sometimes what we end up having to deal with.”
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