GROW OP STORAGE COSTING THOUSANDS

Police Plan To Destroy Equipment

Calgary police are taking steps to get rid of eight years' worth of
seized marijuana grow operation equipment they have been paying to
store in an Edmonton warehouse -- a move that could have a ripple
effect for police services across the country.

"There's no reason to keep it," Sgt. Ron Ternes said of the hundreds
of crates of equipment. "Why are we holding all this stuff?"

The Edmonton warehouse is being used to store at least 630 crates --
each about three metres by two metres.

Police say they will dispose of unclaimed goods and move toward a
system where the equipment is destroyed at the scene.

This is expected to save tens of thousands -- if not hundreds of
thousands -- of dollars.

Ternes began looking into the storage issue about four years ago as
he started refining the process for storing and dealing with drug
growing equipment seized under warrants.

But the problem still remained that there was a massive volume of
seized grow op equipment that had been shipped to Edmonton, where it
was stored in a warehouse by an arm of the federal government.

The goods were held in the provincial capital because the special
projects management directorate doesn't have storage in Calgary, Ternes said.

About 18 months ago, a deputy chief analyzing figures related to
proceeds of crime reimbursements from the federal government realized
the number was smaller than it should be.

The officer discovered the service was being charged to have the
equipment stored in Edmonton.

"It was almost like a hidden cost," Ternes said.

Ternes questioned why taxpayers were shelling out to store equipment
for trials that had come and gone.

"If we hadn't taken this action, they would have just kept storing it
and storing it and leasing more warehouses," he said. "That comes out
of our budget, which comes out of the taxpayers' pockets.

"The monies we save can be put toward policing in Calgary," Ternes said.

The chairman of the Calgary police commission praised the service for
taking action, but said he wasn't surprised to hear of the problem.

"Wherever you get a big operation and you're working in an integrated
fashion with other services, these things happen," Denis Painchaud said.

"What's important is people are paying attention and are doing
something about it."

He said that policing is the largest budgetary item taxpayers are
funding in the city.

Police departments from B.C. to Ontario are facing similar situations
and are keeping a close eye on Calgary's progress, with the hope of
following suit.

"It's become an issue right across the country," Ternes said. "We're
the farthest ahead in the process. We're getting a lot of inquiries
from departments across the country about the process."

In working through the process to get rid of the stored items, Ternes
has had to get a series of forfeiture orders signed by a provincial
court judge. The judge also said, to cover all bases, the service
would have to notify the owners of the equipment that Calgary police
are moving toward having it destroyed.

In a massive classified advertisement listing hundreds of case file
numbers, police are giving notice they will destroy the marijuana
grow operation equipment seized by officers between January 1999 and
March 2007.

The ad says anyone who owned the equipment and wants to make a claim
to have it returned can contact Ternes.

But he doesn't expect people will step forward because once they
admit ownership of property related to a criminal offence, they will
be subject to further investigation.

"It's a technicality," he said of the ad.

Ternes expects the service will get the authorization in the first
week of January to go ahead with destroying the stored goods.

The majority of the items are metal and will be recycled.