'POLICE CAN'T RESOLVE SOCIAL PROBLEMS'

Spending Money on Programs Is Cheaper Than Kilrea's Get-Tough-On-Crime
Plan, Experts Say

Trying to stop people from committing crimes and living on the streets
by beefing up police enforcement -- like mayoral candidate Terry
Kilrea wants to do -- doesn't work, say two Ottawa criminology professors.

Ross Hastings, from the University of Ottawa, and Michel Vallee, from
Carleton University, say the causes of crime and homelessness are what
need to be addressed and increased enforcement or "zero tolerance"
policies are not the answers.

"These are social problems, and police can't resolve social problems,"
Mr. Vallee said yesterday.

Mr. Hastings said if Mr. Kilrea wants to cut down on crime and
homelessness, he would be better off spending money on integrated
programs targeting at-risk families and children, largely in the
city's poorer areas.

He said studies show it's cheaper than Mr. Kilrea's approach, and it's
more effective.

"The difficulty with Kilrea's approach is it's incredibly expensive,
and you often see no positive results."

On Wednesday, Mr. Kilrea announced his public safety platform in the
campaign against Mayor Bob Chiarelli, former city councillor Alex
Munter, and three others.

It's a classic get-tough-on-crime position, including increasing the
number of police officers on the streets by 50 per cent and strict
enforcement to the letter of the law.

Mr. Kilrea's platform targets people living on the streets, drug
dealing, guns, aggressive panhandling, public drunkenness,
prostitution, gangs, vandalism and graffiti, all of which he says are
serious problems in Ottawa.

The policy would target downtown and in the Byward Market, which he
said have "countless people sleeping on the streets, drug dealers
operating in plain view, and roaming gangs of thugs at night."

A report released by Statistics Canada yesterday shows the total crime
rate in Ottawa rose last year by 1.1 per cent while the violent crime
rate dropped 6.8 per cent.

Overall, the report says the city was the ninth safest of 27 Canadian
cities last year, and our crime rates are hardly those of the Bronx
circa 1975.

Mr. Vallee said Ottawa's problems, compared with other similar-sized
cities, "aren't that significant" and that an increase in enforcement
in one area, without an increase in support and social programs, such
as affordable housing, will simply move the criminal element into
another area.

"The causes of crime and homelessness are very broad, so solutions to
them must be broad, too," he said. "It's not a matter of simply
increasing enforcement to get them off the streets. Where are you
going to put them? How are you going to address the problems that led
them to the streets so they won't go back?

"These are the questions that need answering."

Mr. Hastings said Mr. Kilrea's ideas might be influenced by the
misconception that people living on the streets are there voluntarily.
He said a minority of them are, but the majority of them are there
"because they have nowhere else to go."

The professor said tough-on-crime approaches are fundamentally flawed
because they assume laws and enforcement can control individual
decision-making by deterring bad decisions, such as taking drugs or
sleeping on the streets, with punishment.

He said studies show that this doesn't work well, but that when you
provide education, drug treatment, other programs and better choices,
people tend to make good decisions.

"It seldom works if you focus solely on a punitive approach," he said.
"It's more effective to address the multiple levels of risk faced by
these kids and their families."