POLICE CRACK DOWN ON DRUG HOUSES WITH HOTLINE

EDMONTON -- The drug house in McCauley is no longer open for
business, its windows boarded up, a notice nailed to the front door
declaring it unfit for human habitation.

Once a hive of illegal activity, it was closed down by neighbours fed
up with seeing what Det. Maurice Brodeur calls "disreputables" when
they peered out their front-room windows.

"Nobody knows what goes on in the neighbourhood better than the
people who live there," says Brodeur. "Drug houses affect people's
quality of life."

Community involvement is the cornerstone behind report-a-drug-house,
an EPS pilot project which went city-wide on Monday.

Initially implemented on the south side, the program was responsible
for successfully shutting down 88 confirmed drug houses between
September 2005 and June 2006, and identifying many more.

As of today, people who suspect there's a drug house in their
neighbourhood can contact their community police station or phone a
hotline -- 426-8229.

Doing so will set into motion a process that involves numerous
agencies in the city, among them bylaw enforcement, Capital Health
and social services.

" 'Drug house' is actually a misnomer," says Brodeur. "It's really a
'disorder house.' Yes, there are drugs in the house -- usually meth
or coke -- but there aren't a lot of drugs."

There are, however, occupants whose troubles can overtake a house,
and eventually an entire neighbourhood, even those with
million-dollar-plus properties.

"When we do our analyses and see a spike in crimes in an area," says
Brodeur, "like prostitution, fighting, break and enters in cars and
garages, we know there's a drug house somewhere."'

Not all of the houses wind up condemned, like the one in McCauley.

Sometimes tenants move out voluntarily or cease whatever behaviour is
drawing the attention of police.

Sometimes, too, says Brodeur, the people living there are "down on
their luck" and take advantage of help from social agencies that get involved.

Marlene Castor happened to be in the neighbourhood visiting a friend.

She was one of the last tenants to vacate the rooming house in
McCauley, which is where police and media gathered for Monday's announcement.

Two months later, she still hasn't found permanent housing, but is
glad she no longer lives in the house. "I lived there for a year, and
there was a lot of stuff that went on," says Castor, "a lot of bad stuff."