News Article: March 3, 2004
Section: News
Outlet: The Vancouver Sun
Byline: Amy O'Brian
Title: Downtown bar owners consider metal detectors: Call comes after weekend brawl ends in gunfire
Page: Front Page & A.1
Date: 2004-3-22
VANCOUVER -- A number of recent shootings in Vancouver's bar district has prompted a group of bar owners to consider using metal detectors at some downtown clubs.
Early Sunday, up to seven shots were fired in an alley next to Atlantis, a nightclub on Richards Street, after a large fight broke out inside the club and about eight men were kicked out.
Vancouver police Insp. Rollie Woods said the fight spilled out into the alley and one of the men pulled a gun and began shooting.
The men fled in different directions, but police later stopped a car in which they found a man with a head injuries from the fight and three other men believed to have been involved in the nightclub brawl.
Three men were taken in for questioning by police.
Vance Campbell, vice-president of Barwatch -- a group of downtown bar owners -- and Vancouver police Const. Anne Drennan agree shootings are on the rise in the downtown core.
"There have been a number of incidents lately involving shootings either in front of nightclubs, or in a nightclub, or after people have left a nightclub," Drennan said Sunday.
Last week, Barwatch announced that its members are voluntarily rolling back weekend closing hours from 4 a.m. to 3 a.m. The group said it made the decision because the amount of fighting outside bars between 2 am. and 5 a.m. has required extra police, for which the bar owners have had to pay a $735,000 overtime bill.
Not all the shootings can be blamed on gangs, but Campbell said he and his colleagues see more weapons at dance bars that play gangster rap music.
"There seems to be a higher incidence of weapons-related issues at dance bars that deal with gangster rap and those kinds of music formats," Campbell said.
As a result of the increasing presence of weapons at and around bars, Campbell said he and his group are in the early stages of reconsidering whether metal detectors are needed at some bars.
"Some bars need it, some bars don't," he said.
In the past, Campbell and other Barwatch members have said metal detectors are not the answer to preventing people with weapons from entering clubs because they often intimidate bar staff, who then allow them through.
But Campbell said the group is now considering a system in which all people entering certain clubs would have a metal-detecting "wand" passed over them by a trained employee of a security company.
"It wouldn't work if it's administered by an employee of the bar itself, but a third party administering it may be the answer and we're looking into that," he said.
Barwatch is also working to establish a security system that would require patrons to swipe their drivers' licence and have their picture taken before entering a bar. The data would then enter a computer system that would be connected to several downtown bars and the information could be shared between clubs.
The office of B.C.'s privacy commissioner has expressed concerns about the system, but Campbell said he is hopeful that it will be acceptable if a third party operates and monitors the security network.
If a single security company managed door security and operated the computer network between bars, it likely wouldn't be breaching any privacy laws, Campbell said.
"We're looking into that, but we're not there yet," he said.
"We will be there by the summer, absolutely guaranteed."
Some bars will be outfitted with either the metal detectors or the computer scanner, while others may have both.
"There may be some bars that require that kind of attention," he said. "Hip hop, gangster rap bars probably need both."
Atlantis is not a member of Barwatch and therefore isn't subject to the group's recommendations.
Drennan said a shooting two weeks ago at Seymour and Drake streets was connected to Atlantis.
Although the March 6 shooting didn't happen directly in front of the nightclub, Drennan said investigators later discovered the two groups involved in the shooting had been at Atlantis earlier.
During the gunfight, between 17 and 19 shots were exchanged by the two groups. One man was shot in the leg.
At the end of February, Vancouver police held a press conference to highlight the "alarming proliferation of firearms on the street" and said the increase is tied to organized crime and gangs.
Police have reported at least one gun-related incident downtown every weekend since Feb. 27