PREMIER TAILORS CRIME FIGHTING TO PROTECT KIDS FROM DRUG ABUSE

Opposition Leaders Insist More Resources Are Needed In Municipalities
To Improve Safety

LETHBRIDGE - Premier Ed Stelmach vowed Thursday to protect children
from exposure to a lifetime of drug abuse in Alberta as he
highlighted his party's crime prevention plan.

"It's got to stop and it will stop in the province," he said during a
campaign stop in Lethbridge.

The Conservative party leader talked about legislation, passed in
December, which will enable police to enter and shut down houses used
for drugs, gang activities and prostitution.

The legislation will in turn protect innocent children involved, he said.

"We have to move a lot quicker in a lot of those areas," Stelmach
said. "We know we have young children in these drugs houses.

"We know it's happening and yet we can't move quickly."

The premier also promised to beef up policing in Alberta by helping
municipal forces, RCMP and sheriffs recruit at least 100 more
officers provincewide this year.

That's not a lot, considering more than 1,500 officers are currently
working in the province's capital alone, Edmonton Police Association
president Peter Ratcliff said.

"We have a very aggressive recruiting campaign that's been ongoing
for the past six or seven years and it is barely meeting our
recruitment objectives," he said.

"The province comes out and says: 'Yeah, we're going to get 100
people.' My first question of them is: from where?"

EPS plans to recruit 170 new officers this year.

Camrose Police Chief Darrell Kambeitz welcomed the pledge for more officers.

"Anytime someone is offering to supply resources... it will always
assist us in performing our duties," he said.

Alberta ranks eighth among the provinces with 168 police officers per
100,000 people.

The Liberals questioned how the Conservatives intend to bolster the
front-line ranks. "There's only one way to get more officers on the
street and that's by giving municipalities the funding tools to do
it," Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft said.

"Towns and cities have been asking for these tools for years and
they've always been ignored by the tired PC government."

His party would increase the municipal per-capita funding formula.

"Our funding commitment is ongoing and sustainable and can add an
average of 113 officers a year over the next three years at a cost of
$11 million a year," Taft said.

NDP Leader Brian Mason said his party is proposing a "significant
increase" in the number of police officers in Alberta.

"We have significantly lower numbers of police officers per capita
than the national average," he said.

"We believe that funding needs to be provided to municipalities to
enable them to hire 800 new police officers, which would bring
Alberta to the national average in the country. That's a far cry from
what Mr. Stelmach is proposing."

Stelmach said his plan focuses on treating offenders and stopping
them from re-offending.

"If we don't deal with the root causes we know that person will be
back in," he said.

"That's why it's important to spend additional dollars in this area.
We know 15 per cent of repeat offenders commit 60 per cent of the crime."

The province has already established new warrant apprehension teams
to track down and arrest criminals with outstanding warrants.

"Every Albertan has a right to feel safe in their community," the premier said.

The plan was recommended last year by a safe communities task force.

The government committed to spending $156 million a year over the
next three years to keep Alberta communities safe, the premier said.