You know gang-related crime has reached the crisis point in British Columbia when political cartoonist Bob Krieger of the Vancouver Province draws the front page of his own newspaper showing a headline that screams: “EXTRA: NOBODY SHOT!”

It was a rare day indeed throughout much of February and early March when there wasn’t a gang-style shooting in the Lower Mainland. All too often, the shootings have been fatal; on some days, there were as many as four. A few known gang members have been wearing bulletproof vests and driving modified armoured luxury cars.

The most alarming recent shooting occurred in Surrey: a 23-year-old woman was fatally gunned down in broad daylight as she drove her white Cadillac. Witnessing the gruesome “hit” from the back seat was her four-year-old son, who was not injured.

Public outrage over this killing and the fear that sooner or later innocent bystanders will be caught in the cross-fire sent B.C. politicians and police forces scrambling to demonstrate that they’re still in control — which, of course, they’re not. This is all-out gang warfare over a local shortage of hard drugs.

So far, the shootings have resulted in very few arrests, leading experts such as Simon Fraser University director of criminology Rob Gordon to call for reorganization of policing in the Lower Mainland.

The problem? From Vancouver to Hope this region is a policing “mosaic.” Metro Vancouver has 22 municipalities but five have their own police forces, while the rest are policed by separate RCMP detachments.

While there is some co-ordination among the various forces, it’s incomplete. For example, the regional homicide investigation team is led by the RCMP, but Vancouver, West Vancouver and Delta’s police forces don’t belong. Gordon says creating a regional force would deliver far better intelligence-sharing, more efficient use of resources, standardized practices and an improved response to criminals, who move across municipal boundaries to evade arrest.

City of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson also supports regional policing, even though the Vancouver Police Department is the largest independent city force in the region. Most local mayors, however, oppose the concept. They won’t relinquish control and argue that their independent forces have better knowledge of local conditions.

But even a seamless regional police force needs better backup from the courts. As the bullets flew in February, B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal and Solicitor General John van Dongen flew to Ottawa in a bid to have the Harper government toughen up the Criminal Code, only to return home empty-handed.

Yes, the federal government has since taken a few helpful legislative steps, but more toughening up of our laws are required. And B.C. hasn’t done much better. In the province’s February budget, Campbell reduced the three-year spending projections for prosecutors, court services and corrections.

Unfortunately, beyond the call for regional policing, we’ve seen little innovation in ways to fight B.C.’s gangs, which are now actively recruiting on First Nations reserves as well as in the cities and towns. For their part, native groups are making better progress than the community-at-large in educating people on how to curb gang influences on the young.

Elsewhere, citizens are demanding that “something must be done.” But nobody knows what that “something” is.

With a B.C. election set for May 12, don’t be surprised if law and order is as big a campaign issue as the recession. IE