TOP COP RICK HANSON WOULD LOVE TO SHOW CALGARY RESIDENTS WHAT HE COULD
DO WITH ENOUGH DOUGH TO PROPERLY POLICE CITY

So I ask the man what he'll do when he does get a cheque for more
cops.

"You just watch," he says, with not a nanosecond of
hesitation.

"Just give us the bodies. Just give us the chance to prove we can have
an impact. Let us do our job."

Yes, Rick Hanson, the city's top cop, who, by the way, actually talks
like a cop and not like some social worker wannabe or two-bit
paper-shuffler, wants at least 60 more uniforms on the beat in the
city's core.

He also needs 20 uniforms as a high-profile team going after the
gangbangers whenever and wherever they pop out of the sewer, more
detectives to hunt down killers and drug dealers and more officers out
in the 'burbs, where all is not always Pleasantville.

The feds gave Alberta a little cash and Chief Hanson hopes for 30
bodies, but has seen squat. The province, one-time slashers of cop
cash and always talking up law and order, vows to pay for 300 officers
throughout the province in three years. Hanson is hopeful, but has
heard nothing. And he'd like as many in the ranks as soon as possible,
with as little thumb-twiddling as can be managed by those in authority.

"We've got to aggressively take back the streets. It has to be
aggressive," says Hanson.

"Right now our people are like firefighters. They're racing from call
to call, putting on a band-aid and racing to the next one. They
realize what's happening. They're working hard to do what they can do.
They're committed. But they know we need more officers. They're
starting to see the cracks show."

Anybody with even one functioning eyeball, and especially those who
lived here in less frantic times, can spot the widening cracks. There
aren't enough police and the creeps and their crimes get worse.

The police shouldn't have to hold their cap out. If we don't feel
safe, what do we really have?

This city has each officer serving more Calgarians than back in 1975
when the chief started his career and when this town was smaller and
nicer and didn't have the intensity of idiots and, quite frankly, had
more respect for the law and those sworn to uphold it.

In fact, among Canadian cities, only in Ottawa, with a Mountie on
every corner, and Quebec City, with far less crime, does each city cop
serve more residents.

How did this happen?

For those of you without history books handy, the local police have
been hit twice. In 1982, when the economy tanked, they had to lay off
people, even though the population stayed about the same for a few
years and then began to climb.

Then in the '90s, just as police numbers began recovering, the city's
constabulary faced more cuts as the provincial Tories balanced the
books they had screwed up.

Hanson says city taxpayers stepped up to the plate but, with all the
coin citizens send Edmonton and Ottawa, little has come back to help
keep the peace.

Now the Calgary police need 200 badges just to get back to 1975 levels
and Hanson figures 300 over the next three years is what's really
required for the reality of today's trenches.

Yes, the chief mentions how tough it is to see the criminals get their
just desserts. He'd like city police to use videotaping and victim
impact statements from the community to really show the courts how
drug dealers and other assorted lowlifes are destroying
neighbourhoods.

But that takes people.

"We want to do it and to get where we really need to be, we should
have 300 more police officers over the next three years. In 1975, this
was just a nice city and it was smaller. We had less crime and
downtown wasn't the challenge it is now. We've got to own the downtown
again.

"We didn't have all the complexities that came with the Charter of
Rights and the gangs and the drugs.

"We're not being greedy. People don't feel safe walking in parts of
the downtown. We're seeing the consequences of the drugs and even the
province's cost-saving measures emptying all the mental facilities and
putting the people out on the street.

"So far we've been trying to catch up and we never did catch up. We've
balanced the books. We've got money. By whatever standard you use and
measure you have, Calgary is underpoliced."

And, for those sceptical Calgarians who have heard fancy-pants patter
from the police brass of bygone days, Hanson has a word or two.

"We're not opening more community offices where two or three officers
are sitting and smoking cigarettes waiting for people to walk through
the door," he says.

"We just want to be able to take these issues on. This is where we
want to go, this is the job we want to do and we've got the applicants
stacked up like cordwood and ready."

So, Premier Ed, can we expect a cheque?