CRIME RATE UP: WHAT IT ALL MEANS

Chief Outlines Real Problems Behind the Higher Numbers

The complex nature of reducing crime was highlighted by Police Chief
Terry McLaren when he spoke to a local service club Monday.

The city's crime rate rose 12.2 per cent last year, McLaren said.
That's the kind of number that gets people thinking the criminals are
taking over.

But McLaren said he's not overly concerned. A lot of the increase
reflected the 129 drug charges laid during a three-month crackdown on
street dealers in the downtown area. It wasn't so much a spike in
crime as a reflection of police deciding to target a specific segment of it.

Popular sentiment would be that the crime rate increase proves more
officers are needed. But McLaren has repeatedly said he's happy with
the number he has after several years of expansion.

There is a segment of the population that believes an increase in
drug crime and break-ins proves the downtown isn't safe. But McLaren
told the Rotary Club on Monday that's not true, that crime downtown
rose only 1.2 per cent last year.

"Downtown is very, very safe," the chief said.

However, there are problem areas.

Drug use tops the list. Marijuana remains the most common drug, but
cocaine arrests doubled over last year and police warn that the
highly addictive crystal methamphetamine is on its way.

Drug users looking for money or anything they can sell are mainly
responsible for 43-per-cent more break-ins and 69 per-cent-more
thefts from vehicles, McLaren said.

Yet those are symptoms of bigger, more troubling concerns. Drugs are
easier to get, McLaren said, because suppliers chased out of Toronto
by a provincially and federally financed crackdown on gang violence
are looking for other markets. As a result, more guns are also appearing.

That outflow is starting to be felt in Peterborough. It is not a
major factor yet, but McLaren is right: now is the time to expand
anti-gang efforts beyond Toronto, before a big problem develops.

School education programs are also important. Arresting a lot of drug
dealers and users doesn't make people feel their community is safer;
reducing the number of users will.

But not everything police can do to make communities safer happens at
the street level. Government policies also make a difference.

The province's insistence that local police cover the cost of court
security is a good example. It costs the city force more than $1
million a year to man two court buildings and transfer prisoners - a
sizeable chunk of its $14 million budget. Freeing up that money would
provide flexibility to do a lot more crime prevention.

Lobbying to shift those costs back to the province, and to expand
anti-gang programs outside the Toronto area before the problem gets
out of hand, isn't just a job for police. Municipal politicians,
school boards, business groups, social agencies - anyone with an
interest in safe communities - should be joining in.