Edmonton police branch to focus on city’s 200 most prolific offenders

Editor’s note: This story originally said the D&D branch was new. However, it launched in 2020 and is being expanded this year. Global News regrets the error.

The Edmonton Police Service is expanding a branch that will focus on the city’s 200 most prolific and persistent offenders.

The Diversion and Desistance branch (D&D) is made up of several units that focus on getting the offenders out of criminal lifestyles by targeting the underlying motivation behind their criminal activity, whether it’s behavioural, drug-motivated or mental health related.

The EPS has contracted out three social workers to help them find the root cause of crime for repeat offenders in the city.

The goal of the branch is to move offenders away from a life of crime by utilizing a consistent, evidence-based and rehabilitative approach towards offender management.

The EPS said it identified 200 offenders who are responsible for the most harm to communities and the most demand on frontline officers. The 200 were chosen out of the approximately 55,000 offenders who are in Edmonton on any given date.

According to the EPS, the 2021 offender pool is responsible for 4,418 occurrences between Jan. 1, 2016 and Dec. 31, 2020. Twenty per cent of the occurrences happened in 2020 and 25 per cent in the last nine months.

“By centralizing all offender management functions, we can prioritize, identify and align functions with diversion and demand reduction strategies, initiatives and programs within CSWB to divert these offenders better than before,” the EPS said in a news release Tuesday.

“Offender management strategies have been active within EPS for six years, D&D is simply improving upon what was originally developed.”

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The D&D will use a different approach based on where the offender is located within the community — whether they’re on the street committing crime or about the be released from jail.

Enforcement will be used for those still involved in criminal activity, while the focus for those being released from incarceration will be on prevention and intervention.

The EPS said those who want to stop offending will be set up with a case plan, social worker and other supports to keep them on a crime-free path. Those who continue to commit crime will be watched by a different team. If the risk of the offender outweighs their needs, the team will use suppression tactics such as arresting the person, the EPS said.

“The overall goal is to get offenders to stop their criminal behaviour and keep them out of the criminal justice system. To do this, we use different teams of employees and various techniques to assist offenders,” D&D Insp. Duane Hunter said.

“Ultimately, it is up to the offender to decide the direction he or she wants to go; regardless of what the offender has chosen to do, EPS officers talk and build a relationship with them.”

The D&D launched in 2020.