CANANDA - WPS urges anti-gang bylaw..

OFF THE WIRE
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WOODSTOCK— The Woodstock Police Service is taking proactive measures to stop organized crime from getting a foothold in the Friendly City.

Police Chief Rod Freeman will be asking council to consider a fortification bylaw at tonight's meeting to prevent outlaw motorcycle gangs from setting up clubhouses here.
"We are getting rumblings from various intelligence sources that there has been a resurgence of motorcycle gxxg activity in Ontario," Freeman said. "Puppet clubs are starting to emerge."
Traditionally, clubhouses are retrofitted with "excessive fortification" to prevent police and emergency service from entering.
These measures could include reinforcing the front door with an eight-centimetre steel door, blocking windows with cinderblocks or erecting concrete barriers around the building.
Freeman said, while police want to prevent these extreme cases of extra fortification, they don't want to prevent law-abiding citizens from protecting their own homes.
"This is clearly not intended to stop people from using closed-circuit televisions or alarms on their property or for banks to use extra fortification," said Freeman, adding there will be exceptions and allowances.
city officials would include in the bylaw.
Freeman said Woodstock could be seen as an attractive location for a clubhouse, given its close vicinity to larger urban centres and easy highway access.
He said, at this time, local police have no information that any outlaw motorcycle gxxgs want to set up shop here.
"Woodstock has a distant history with gxxgs, and we want to make sure it stays distant, not current," said Freeman.
Organized crime legislation in Canada does not touch on fortification issues. Municipalities have been addressing the matter through individual bylaws. Freeman said Orangeville adopted a similar bylaw in 2005.

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