Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 28/00) - Last Wednesday's Inuvik Justice Committee meeting spurred thoughts of youth crime in town.

Despite the ongoing need to find solutions for issues like enforcing community-service hours, however, RCMP Cpl. Brian Pinder said youth crime is not necessarily on the rise.

"It's somewhat of a problem, but it is restricted to a fairly small group of kids," he said. "It's mainly break-and-enters and stealing snowmobiles -- joy-riding them until they break down or run out of gas. Though (recovery) is of little consolation to the owners because they may not know how hard they've been ridden until three months or so later."

Pinder said many young offenders are repeat offenders, as in the case of a group of four or five youth involved in a snowmobile theft and who recently found themselves in court.

"I don't think they're thinking that far ahead," he said. "It's more like living for the moment, which is typical of teenagers."

Pinder said Inuvik crime patterns tend to be cyclical; quiet at times and then more active -- like a rash of break-ins that occurred last fall. He said the RCMP's strategy is to keep working with the schools, support the Youth Centre and encourage others to help.

"We'd like to see a little more support from other parts of the community for those things," he said. "The idea is to keep the youth busy and productive rather than having nothing to do."

Pinder commended the success of the Justice Committee, adding that while it might be frustrating for some residents, court policies like open custody still have their advantages.

"It's better to err on this side than to lock them up and throw away the key," he said.

Mayor George Roach said he has doubts about the effectiveness of the justice system. He said although the RCMP responded quickly to a break-in at both his Boreal Books building, he doesn't expect the young offender to be reformed when he walks out of custody.

"He'll come out smarter after a few months in jail and won't walk up and look in the security camera again," said Roach, "but other than that parents need to take more responsibility and a curfew might help. The RCMP have resisted that so far, but I've had several people call me about it and if enough people came to council and demanded it, maybe we could do something."

Inuvik's new Crown prosecutor, Brent Lepage, said while he hasn't had that much exposure to the region yet, he believes in initiatives like the Justice Committee and community support.

"With youth you have to look at rehabilitation as key under the Young Offenders Act and use jail as a last resort," he said.

Meanwhile, one man who helps Inuvik residents feel safer is Tom Kirby, owner-operator of Northwest Lock & Safe and of Northwest Security Systems. The self-described "busiest small businessman in the region," said contrary to popular belief, most of his business is not crime-related.

"Some stores with break-ins want alarm systems, but I can't say there's a lot of demand because of crime," he said. "Every time there's a break-in the police tell the victims to check out alarms and then they call me. I tell them the price and sometimes they like it and sometimes they don't. I get 10 calls a day for lock work, but they don't necessarily have to do with break-ins."