A Victoria Police team, dedicated to youth violence and vandalism, returned downtown for the third weekend in a row in an effort to maintain high visibility and deter potential crime.
VicPD’s Youth Violence and Vandalism Interdiction and Engagement Response Team will continue to have a heightened downtown presence in Victoria this weekend as the city deals with an increase in crimes relating to youth.
For the last six weeks, Victoria Police say that officers have been responding to calls for service for violent offences and vandalism related to large groups of youths gathering in downtown Victoria and consuming alcohol and drugs.
Police say that the gatherings have been organized by a core group via Snapchat and WhatsApp.
On Friday, May 27, Victoria Police hit the streets in an effort to circulate to the main spots where these groups have been gathering in order to deter possible crime.
Victoria Police say that they responded to a total of eight calls for service surrounding youth. In total, the department responded to 82 calls on Friday night, making the youth-related incidents just under 10 per cent of the total.
One of the duties for the response team is to circulate at the main spots that many of the youths congregate. #VicPDLive pic.twitter.com/9L0d2Ecs29
— Victoria Police (@vicpdcanada) May 28, 2022
Victoria Police says that a lot of conversations were had through Friday’s engagement, resulting in the seizure and disposal of alcohol.
There's a common theme to many of the interactions we're having with the groups we're speaking with tonight. #yyj #VicPDLive pic.twitter.com/ZMGncc9haL
— Victoria Police (@vicpdcanada) May 28, 2022
Police say that the officers’ presence at these gatherings on Friday seemed to “prevent overconsumption & the assaults & swarmings we have seen previous weeks.”
Engaging w young people early in the evening, seizing & disposing of alcohol is part of our high-visibility preventative approach. Time & again, this early contact appears to prevent overconsumption & the assaults & swarmings we have seen previous weeks. #yyj #VicPDLive
— Victoria Police (@vicpdcanada) May 28, 2022
In one tweet from the Victoria Police Department, officers could be seen approaching a large group of youth in Beacon Hill Park, that appeared to scatter and run the other way.
Empty alcohol bottles were also found by officers at places where youth had been gathering on Friday.
Here's what it looks like as we approach a group of youths who are drinking. #VicPDLive #yyj pic.twitter.com/LZl1gVgOpY
— Victoria Police (@vicpdcanada) May 28, 2022
While most of the evening went without major incident, police say they arrested one youth for being intoxicated in public, while another was taken to hospital after overconsuming alcohol.
Police add that they also seized a number of weapons from a group of youth at Douglas and Yates at around 5 p.m. as well.
This marks the third weekend that Victoria Police deployed the Youth Engagement Team. The second week of the Response Team’s deployment coincided with the May long weekend, and officers’ say they also disrupted several large gatherings, including one gathering on Dallas Road that had an estimated 50 youths in attendance. One young person was arrested last week during the deployment.
Graham Cox
