SURREY TO TARGET PROLIFIC OFFENDERS

Plan Includes Community Court

An ambitious plan to combat crime in Surrey will utilize a community
court and high-tech gadgets.

"This is a complete paradigm shift in the way things are done in
Canada," Mayor Dianne Watts told a media conference yesterday.

"We know it works from our studies in the United Kingdom and New
York."

The four-part strategy lists 106 recommendations and took over an hour
to unveil to Surrey MPs, MLAs, councillors and representatives of 50
organizations at the conference.

Gadgets include surveillance cameras on the streets and automatic
licence-plate recognition cameras. They would detect fleeing criminals
by identifying their vehicles.

Surrey wants "prolific offenders" to be monitored by a "management
team" as they work their way through the justice system.

The team would work with probation officers, social services, health
officials and the police to "address the factors that caused the
offender to commit crime," said Watts.

The RCMP arrested 360 prolific offenders last year. Problems in the
fast-growing city of 420,000 include homelessness, drug addiction,
property crime, marijuana grow-operations and prostitution.

A provincially sanctioned community court would sentence drug addicts
to treatment facilities instead of jail. Vancouver already has a
community court pilot project.

The report recommends hiring 50 community safety officers who would
wear bright orange vests and help deter crime.

A crime-reduction strategy manager will be hired to "roll out" the
programs.

"We will look for partners from the feds, province and ourselves for a
three-way split," said Watts.

She admitted there is no budget to implement the recommendations, but
said taxes won't be raised.

"I don't see this as a large-ticket item," she said. "There are a
number of initiatives where existing organizations can support each
other."

A website will allow crime reporting in three languages -- English,
Punjabi and Cantonese.

"We have to convince the visible minorities that in Canada we have
independent police who will listen to them," said Attorney-General
Wally Oppal. "Surrey's approach is the right one. Our world has
changed. We can't do business like we have the past 35 years.

"We have to deal with the root causes of crime. We have to adopt an
integrated approach with health authorities, housing, corrections,
prosecutors and the police."

Many recommendations are just that: advocating stiffer and longer
sentences for repeat offenders, and speedier trials.

"Everybody says we can't do this. Yeah, Surrey!" said North Surrey MP
Penny Priddy. "This is a good Surrey story . . . Everybody needs to
pick up their piece and own it."