An unidentified person from the Comox Valley is among 37 people who have turned themselves in after the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver.
Thirty males and seven females could face charges that include participating in a riot, assault, assaulting a peace officer, mischief, break and enter, theft, robbery, arson, weapons possession and possession of stolen property.
Besides revealing the other two Vancouver Island suspects among the 37 are from Victoria and Tofino, the Integrated Riot Investigation Team shared some interesting statistics in a news release:
• 202 recorded incidents with anywhere from one to 300 suspects for each;
• 4,300 e-mail tips to date;
• 1,700 e-mails requiring investigation;
• 1,500 video hours to review;
• 15,000 images;
• 3,000 individual video data files;
• 431 tasks assigned for follow-up investigators currently, including tips.
IRIT says it's preparing charges against those who have come forward.
"This is expected to be a lengthy and complex process as investigators work to ensure the essential elements of the offences are met in order to obtain a successful conviction," adds IRIT.
An additional 111 people are under investigation for criminal acts relating to the riot. There are literally hundreds more who have been identified and who will become the subject of an investigation in the coming months.
The investigative team is in place and comprised of 50 police officer and civilian experts from around the region. There are many challenges in this investigation, not the least of which is the sheer amount of evidence and information that must be painstakingly analyzed to ensure a complete and thorough investigation.
The team is still fine-tuning the infrastructure that is dealing with the unprecedented volume of data.
A suspect may be identified quickly in a photograph committing a crime, however, investigators still need to determine the extent of their involvement. Additional crimes may not be uncovered until more in-depth analysis of available evidence is completed.
As well, investigators need to ensure that people who turned themselves in to police are held accountable for all of the crimes they may have committed.
Ideally, investigators will compile the necessary evidence to go forward with all charges for an individual at one time, including the main offence of participating in a riot.
The IRIT team says it has catalogued hundreds of images of people that will be closely examined. Once properly processed as evidence, these images will be released to the public in due course to assist investigators in identifying suspects.
Anyone with photos or video not yet submitted is asked to make copies of them and burn them to a CD or DVD. It is important to keep the memory card that contains these pictures or videos, in case they need to be examined further. If the pictures or videos are stored on a cell phone, please do not delete them.
Once you have done this, you're asked to advise IRIT or send them to riot@vpd.ca.
Tips can be left at 1-604-717-2541 or with Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Anyone wanting to turn themselves in should call 1-778-838-2124 to make the necessary arrangements.