Lt. Nanson takes on the Canadians
I was traipsing through the Internet this morning, looking for a phone number for Operations Valley Bureau, when I found it turned up in a very odd place. Lt. Gary Nanson, who coordinates gang efforts for OVB, showed up in an article in a Canadian newspaper, criticizing his north-of-the-border counterparts' handling of a homicide.
"They're using traditional ways of solving a homicide," said Lt. Gary Nanson, head of the LAPD's Valley Gang unit. "They're actually embarrassing themselves."
(Cpl. Dale Carr, spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) took exception to the comment, saying Nanson "has absolutely no basis to make a comment like that. That's an uninformed, unresponsible quote from him."
Nanson seems to have either really ticked off the Canucks or inspired equal agreement that they don't know what they're doing.
I've interviewed the lieutenant a few times and it sounds exactly like something he'd say. He's an intense, outspoken guy who will go on at length about what he sees as the failures of law enforcement to respond to gang violence. He foresees a future where gangs will evolve into sophisticated, more organized operations relying on financial crime, rather than traditional stuff on the street. As such, he'd like to see more gang intelligence and detectives, rather than uniformed officers doing suppression.
My only question is: how the hell did the newspaper find him? Whatever the case, the veteran cop probably won't be enjoying any Labatts courtesy of the IHIT next time he's up in Surrey.