POLICE FOCUS ON DRUG CRIMES

Innisfail's top cop is happy with his detachment's performance plan,
showing an increased focus on drug and impaired driving charges.

The plan, which runs from April to April, lays out issues for officers
to focus on in the community. This year's issues include drug abuse,
property crimes, speeding, seat belts and impaired driving.

"Overall, I think the issues that have been identified, we're
addressing them in the best way we can," said Staff Sgt. Lyle Marianchuk.

For this year's community issue, officers were focusing on drug abuse
and enforcement. They hoped to increase the number of drug charges and
dealers charged in the detachment area from 35 to 40 charges. From
April up to October there have been 33 drug related charges. This
means officers have reached 83 per cent of their goal.

"It's the members being more focused and taking a harder line,
especially possession for the purpose of trafficking," said Marianchuk.

He explained that there were times in the past when people were
apprehended with a very small amount of drugs and the drugs were
seized but no charges were laid. Marianchuk said they've changed that
philosophy now.

Officers are also focused on gathering information from the public
that can be used later for enforcement purposes.

"We're working on information sources, to get information on who's
dealing and who has the drugs," Marianchuk said.

As well, there is a public awareness and education component to the
drug abuse issue. This year an officer has started the DARE program in
St. Marguerite school.

Another area of focus for the detachment is impaired driving. Officers
hoped to increase the number of charges from 52 to 63. From April up
until October there have been 61 impaired driving charges, and
Marianchuk believes they will exceed their goal by April 2008.

He said there have been no extra patrols, but again, there is just a
stronger focus from members. This month police are also starting the
seasonal check stop program.

"I don't think there's more impaired drivers than there were last
year, it's just we're more focused on it," said Marianchuk.

One area that posed some challenges for police is mischief. There has
been an increase in mischief related offences, which have gone up by
16 per cent. There were 172 incidents reported this year, compared to
148 at the same time last year.

Marianchuk said there was a rash of mischief during the month of June,
which was related to six youths who have been charged with at least 13
counts of mischief. But he said the increase can't all be attributed
to the youth.

"A good portion of that increase can be attributed to that rash in
June, but if you take that out of the equation, there still is a
slight increase," he said. "It's a phenomena that's happening in all
the communities."

Marianchuk explained that the police have tried to address this issue
for the last couple of years. There are several programs in the
community, such as student Crimestoppers in the schools, Citizens on
Patrol and Rural Crime Watch.

"That hasn't had any impact," said Marianchuk. "So this year our goal
was to increase our clearance rate. In other words, attempt to try and
solve the property crimes that we're getting."

He said that doesn't necessarily mean charges, but for the police to
know who did it. If it's a youth committing the crimes, there are
possible restorative justice or alternative measures to work with.

"Property crimes are the most difficult thing to solve," said
Marianchuk. "Usually there are no witnesses to it."

He said there is no one answer to preventing mischief in town. He
thinks one of the factors could be that kids are bored and are out
late at night roaming the streets.

"I think there's a big onus on the family, the home, in dealing with
mischief," Marianchuk said. "Knowing where your kid is, knowing who
he's with."