[SIZE="3"]With 2010 not even a month old, armed robbers have targeted three city businesses.

The latest was on Wednesday, when a clerk at the Colonial Inn was robbed at gunpoint. Police quickly caught and charged a teenager, who will be in court today for a bail hearing.

But despite the three armed robberies so far this year, Saint John Police Chief Bill Reid says police are making progress.

The number of robberies in the city, he said, dropped in 2009 to 71 from 80 in 2008. Illicit drugs, the chief chief, are often the driving force behind such robberies.

"This is heavy criminal activity when you do an armed robbery," Reid said. "The consequences (are) going to jail for a long period of time, so you weigh that with what would be the issue that makes someone want to do that and you realize that it's drugs."

The minimum sentence for armed robbery is four years.

On Jan. 14, the Petro-Canada gas station at the corner of Bayside Drive and Mount Pleasant Avenue East was the scene of an armed robbery, but police have not divulged the type of weapon used. Just six days later, Ming's Oriental Market on Prince William Street was hit by two robbers, one armed with a knife.

Businesses, Reid said, also have to do their part to help police.

"[B][COLOR="Red"]All too often people will install a camera system where the imagery is terrible and it doesn't assist us at all[/COLOR][/B]," Reid said.

[B][COLOR="Red"]Grainy video images, the chief said, do nothing to aid in the search for suspects and make a conviction difficult when the case finally reaches the courts.[/COLOR][/B]

"That (video) helps police exponentially in their investigation as opposed to making a guess and relying on eyewitness information and all the frailties that go with that," Reid said.

Video surveillance can also determine if what has been reported to police as a robbery, is actually a robbery. Employees who steal from their employer often try to cover their tracks by reporting a robbery that never happened, Reid said.

Controlled access and having more than one employee working the late shift are also a deterrence, he said.

"It's all about availability. Any place that is open 24-7 could be subject to a robbery."

In 2008, police adopted intelligence-led policing - a police technique aided by computer software that tracks crime trends. Car thefts are down by almost 19 per cent over 2008 and break and enters fell slightly more than 26 per cent, both 10-year lows.

A crime analyst who gathers and dissects the data is able to "make some predictions to aid in our directed policing, where we should be," Reid said. "It's more than what the average officer is able to do and it's a formula of predictability."

Intelligence-led policing, the chief said, goes far beyond tracking crimes by sticking push pins in a map of the city.

"This puts it down to a specific pin on the map and not just a bunch of pins," Reid said.

"We will look at that area and monitor it very closely to see if that person will continue with his or her pattern."[/SIZE]

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