Knives were used in 186 incidents, firearms in 21

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bottles, pens, firearms, knives, baseballbats… they’re all just tools — BLAME the INDIVIVIDUAL, NOT the tool!
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PUBLICATION: Calgary Herald
DATE: 2004.10.15
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A1 / FRONT
BYLINE: Linda Slobodian
SOURCE: Calgary Herald
ILLUSTRATION: Colour Photo: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald / Paul
Vickers’clubs use a scanner to screen patrons.; Colour Photo: (Stephen
Jenuth, Alberta Civil Liberties Association)

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Bars pat down patrons for weapons

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Calgary’s nightclub king is patting down patrons with metal detectors
and screening driver’s licences with high-tech scanners to curb barroom
violence.

Club staff in the Penny Lane Entertainment stable also take photos of
clubbers and search purses for weapons.

“We take security very seriously. We don’t want to cater to bikers,
gangs, known criminals, parolees or organized crime,” said Paul Vickers,
who owns six Calgary nightclubs. “Starting yesterday, everybody who
comes in, we pat down with a metal detector.”

Before Christmas, patrons will have to pass through airport-type
screening devices and be fingerprinted, he said.

Police say there have been about 20 knifings in and around Calgary bars
this year.

Civil rights advocates say the measures are extreme, but Vickers shrugs
off the criticism.

“People who don’t want to come in — don’t come to our bars,” Vickers
said. “We’re not going to change for them.”

Clubbers are already under constant surveillance from security cameras
inside the bars.

Vickers said the beefed-up security measures apply to Cowboys Dance
Hall, Tantra Nightclub and Lounge, Coyotes Nightclub, Ceili’s Irish Pub,
Zen on 8th and Chicago Chop House.

Vickers said he is spending millions to improve safety at his 12 bars
and clubs in Alberta and B.C.

“Calgary is becoming a bigger city with more problems and violence,” he
said. “The plot is usually the same. It’s usually over a girl or money.
You very seldom see punches thrown anymore.”

Attackers prefer to “stab and walk away,” the weapon of choice usually
being a cardboard cutter, with pocket knives placing second, he said.

The head of the Alberta Civil Liberties Association is concerned about
fingerprinting and rifling through purses.

“While owners of nightclubs have an obligation to ensure the premises
are safe and people are not bringing inappropriate things in, one must
be careful,” said Stephen Jenuth.

Airport-type detectors are “a bit of overkill,” said Jenuth.

“Use metal detectors rather than physically going through one’s purse.
It’s almost like going through pockets.

“Fingerprinting strikes me as a thing very problematic in terms of
privacy. It could be used inappropriately to track individuals. It’s the
type of information people ought not provide.”

Other clubs are implementing their own anti-violence measures.

The secret to curbing violence lies in the doorman, said Brian Talbot,
manager of Euphoria Night Club and Dance Bar, on 1 St. S.W.

Years ago the mentality of the “muscled, meathead doorman” was to “grab
‘em in the back of the head” at the first sign of trouble. That’s
changed, he said.

“Our doormen are diplomats. We go through a lengthy interview and
training on site,” said Talbot.

The $50 “high-end wand” used to detect metal helps too, he said.

“In the last two months, we got one knife. We go through the girls’
purses. Boyfriends hide knives in them.”

The average patron is 20 years old

Incidents involving weapons at bars are “sporadic,” said acting Insp. Ed
Yeomans of the city police District 1.

“Any time you have an incident of violence, it’s a problem,” he said.
“We support any of the initiatives these bars or nightclubs take to
improve security. Kudos to them.”

Some 1,524 incidents involving the use of weapons, 495 of them knives,
were reported to Calgary police between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 this year.

Of those, 776 incidents resulted in injury. Knives were used in 186
incidents, firearms in 21, other weapons (bottles, pens) were used in
533 cases. Weapons in 36 cases were unknown.

Eight per cent of knife injuries reported to police were in or near
clubs.