FIRST READING: The shockingly small number of men causing all the crime

At the 2023 hearing where Aiden Tye was sentenced for his brick attack on a pregnant mother, B.C. provincial court Judge Ronald Lamperson said it “highly likely after being released Tye will commit further offences.” Photo by RCMP

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Amidst B.C.’s election campaign, B.C. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson issued a statement over the Thanksgiving weekend denouncing the latest release of an individual he called “Nanaimo’s most prolific offender.”

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Aiden Tye, 41, has accumulated 274 criminal convictions — an average of one criminal conviction per month since his 18th birthday.

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More recently, he defecated on his hands and smeared feces on the windows of a coffee shop that had thrown him out.

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The feces incident was only in January, but Tye’s 271-day sentence is already up, thanks in part to a stretch of pre-sentencing detention, as every one day Tye spent in jail prior to a criminal sentence was counted as 1.5 days of a post-sentence jail term.

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As Doerkson wrote, Tye’s release is emblematic of a system where “repeat violent offenders (are) released again and again, only to create more victims.”

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And indeed, every B.C. city has at least one offender like Aiden Tye.

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In Kelowna it’s Justin Collins, 49, who has racked up more than 400 police files and 66 convictions since 2012. Collins’ most recent sentencing was in July, for charges including indecent exposure at a hotel. At the hearing, prosecutor Nick Lerfold said that every time Collins is released from jail, he never goes longer than 40 days before committing a new crime.

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Last year, Kamps even received a shout-out in a Penticton rally hosted by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. “He’s more famous than I am,” joked Poilievre.

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In some corners of B.C., authorities have begun to openly acknowledge that they are in the grip of crime waves committed by very small groups of people.

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In Kelowna, Collins is likely among the 15 “chronic property offenders” highlighted in a city report as the prime consumers of the city’s law enforcement resources. In just 2024, those 15 accounted for 1,335 police files.

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“The pattern of persistent criminality by this select group is staggering and relentless,” the report read.

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In a 2022 letter sent to then attorney general David Eby (who now serves as premier), the B.C. capital of Victoria identified 10 chronic offenders responsible for 1,385 police interactions over two years.

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In Chilliwack, up to 60 per cent of the crime can be attributed to about a dozen offenders. That’s according to an estimate given to B.C. crime journalist Paul Henderson by Irwin Cohen, a criminologist at the University of the Fraser Valley.