MORE POLICE, EQUIPMENT TO CUT CRIME

Spurred by a tripling of gun incidents and a proliferation of drugs
and gangs, Windsor police will spend almost $2 million to hire 14
extra officers, buy more than a dozen new vehicles and purchase
high-tech equipment to quickly retrieve electronic evidence.

"I expect to see more enforcement relative to drugs, increased
arrests, reduced drugs and guns on the street and improved response
to other crimes," police Chief Glenn Stannard said Tuesday.

Mayor Eddie Francis, who announced the initiatives Monday, called the
shooting of Const. John Atkinson during a drug deal last May and
another shooting by a crack cocaine addict in August "warning flags."

"We need to deal with it now before it gets out of hand," he said.
"It can't be a Band-Aid approach."

"It has to be a significant, comprehensive program. One of the
greatest things about living in Windsor is we feel safe, and the last
thing we want is to lose that."

The number of incidents involving guns surged to 60 last year from 20
in 2000, Stannard said. There is also more access to cocaine in
Windsor than ever before, he said, and police have pulled

$2 million in marijuana from grow-ops off the street this year.
Members of four Toronto gangs have also been identified working in
Windsor. Investigators are seeing increasing links between drugs,
guns and gangs in the city.

Until last summer, the 400 block of Curry Avenue was a quiet
neighbourhood, said the Neighbourhood Watch captain there. Now, there
has been an increase in break-ins into vehicles and homes and also
drugs and prostitution. Vehicles are broken into almost every night,
said the man, who didn't want to be named. Residents have learned not
to leave anything valuable in their cars.

"We want our neighbourhood back safe again because of the school down
the street," he said, referring to Benson public elementary school.
"It has got to be safe for the kids."

All communities are struggling with an increase in drugs, and gangs
have spread everywhere, Stannard said.

Although police had concluded from a recent review that they need to
change the way they investigate crime, the shooting of Atkinson on a
sidewalk in the middle of the day "cemented our thought that the
whole issue of guns and drugs had to be addressed in a much better
way," said Stannard.

The reorganization and expansion will include "significantly
increasing" the number of drug investigators, he said.

"We are looking at ramping up," he said. "That is one of the key
factors. Usually where we find drugs, we find guns, too."

POLICE PLANS

- - An additional officer will be hired to track and seize illegal
guns. That officer will be a member of the provincial weapons
enforcement unit but will be based in Windsor.

- - Officers currently working in intelligence and investigations will
be assigned to follow gangs.

- - A new investigation analysis branch, driven by high-tech tools to
retrieve electronic evidence, will be established. A civilian will be
hired specifically to retrieve images off video equipment. A forensic
technical investigator will also be employed to retrieve information
from computers, cellphones and other electronic equipment. An
additional officer will be hired to handle Internet stalking,
especially pedophiles who try to lure children from chatrooms.