DAY 3: CHILLIWACK: RESIDENTS WEED OUT GROW-OPS

Strength In Numbers Used To Shut Down Criminals Next Door

Claudette Lyon was tired of neighbours growing the wrong kind of grass.

The Chilliwack resident watched in silent fury as her Vedder Crossing
neighbourhood slowly filled with grow-ops, drug houses and addicts
looking to score in the place she, her husband and their twins
formerly considered a safe home.

"When I moved here it was awesome. It was beautiful," says the
Remington Crescent homeowner.

"A few years went by and things started to change. It only takes one
grow house; one bad house can make a huge difference in a neighbourhood."

At first glance, her subdivision is still picture-perfect: neighbours
out mowing tidy lawns, kids blading by, delivering newspapers. But
Lyon says she's witnessed scenes here that would not be out of place
in a ghetto: police busting houses with weapons drawn, all-hours
traffic to drug homes, break-ins, car thefts and meth addicts
wandering the streets taking off their clothes.

So in April, Lyon went door to door to talk to neighbours and
followed up with a meeting to establish the neighbourhood's first
Block and Grow Watch. She signed up 55 homes. Now the Grow Watch
captain is eager to start taking her neighbourhood back, joining more
than 20 other Chilliwack blocks and 1,600 residents in the program.

"People need to stop closing their blinds and thinking it's going to
go away," Lyon says. "It's not."

Chilliwack clocked the highest per-capita marijuana growing offences
in B.C. in 2003, sixth in overall number of grow-ops, according to
the University College of the Fraser Valley study by Darryl Plecas:
Marihuana Operations in British Columbia. From 1997 to 2003, the
number of Chilliwack grow-ops grew 214 per cent to 204 cases.

Marijuana cultivation in B.C. is a massive industry and massive
problem for citizens and police. The province accounts for 39 per
cent of all cultivation cases in Canada, more than any other
province. B.C.'s 79 grow-ops per 100,000 people is well over the
national average of 27. The street value of B.C. bud tops $7 billion.
B.C. produced 80,000 kilograms in 2003 and in the process stole $3.2
million in hydro power.

Detection of grow-ops outpaces police forces' ability to deal with
them. B.C. RCMP get about 4,500 reports of grow-ops a year but can
only bust 1,500 of the largest. But even small-scale grow-ops can
cause large-scale problems when they're literally in your back yard.

"Grow-ops are a cancer among us," Don Van Beest of the Chilliwack
fire department tells a crowd of 75 Block Watch leaders gathered in
Chilliwack's municipal hall to learn about Block and Grow Watch.

"It's not if this building catches fire, it's when," the fire
prevention officer says as he flashes slides of deadly wiring and
pails of toxic chemicals.

In 2005, Chilliwack launched its local pot watch, believed to be the
first of its kind. Grow Watch works with police to educate residents
to report suspicious activity. Residents sign up and once a block
gets an 80 per cent participation rate, they are trained and Grow
Watch signs go up, warning: "Neighbours are watching, recording and reporting."

Dave Serblowski, interim civilian co-ordinator of Chilliwack's Block
Watch/Grow Watch, says the program takes the fear out of reporting.

"Everybody's scared to phone the police because of repercussions,"
says Ser-blowski, who also set up a 400- member Grow Watch in Hope.
"But when you start forming a cohesive group, everybody starts
looking out for one another. And these guys doing the growing and the
crystal meth say, 'We don't want to be watched, let's get out of here.'"

Chilliwack RCMP Const. Steve Hiscoe knows how insidious grow-ops can
be: One next to his home was busted over a year ago. And he knows how
hard they can be to spot: One of his detach-ment's latest busts on
Ingle-wood Crescent was in a pleasant rancher that appeared to house
a retired couple, complete with well-tended roses and bird houses.

To Hiscoe, Grow Watch's power lies in its deterrent factor. "With
signs posted, people looking to set up a grow know this neighbourhood
is probably not where they want to be," says Hiscoe, "because people
have their eyes and ears open."

Police have had "direct grow-op busts related to Grow Watch."
Grow-ops busted fell to 97 in 2005, but Hiscoe cites a lack of police
resources over any real drop in number.

City council's 2004 grow-buster bylaw is aiding in the crackdown. The
Nuisance, Noxious or Offensive Trades, Health and Safety bylaw
requires that landlords inspect rentals every three months and report
to the city in 24 hours if they find grow-ops or meth labs. The
property must be cleaned and inspected before it can be occupied. The
owner is billed for costs and can be fined up to $10,000.

A dozen other jurisdictions have similar bylaws. Since this bylaw was
brought in, the city has collected $240,000 in clean-up fees and
$140,000 in fines against 118 property owners, according to Lisa
Thompson, Chilliwack's manager of technical services.

"They're probably fined more by the city," Hiscoe quips, "than they
are by the courts."

Meanwhile, back in her neighbourhood, Lyon's Grow Watch signs have
just gone up and she's feeling hopeful about the ability of her team
to reclaim the community.

"I'm going to be on them like a dirty shirt if they plan to have a
grow-op," she says.

"I'll let them know if you buy this house for some illegal activity,
somebody's gonna catch you. If we don't do it, who's going to do it?
I'm tired of letting it go. If you do, it just escalates until your
home is not your safe haven any more."

Grow-Op Giveaways

Grow Watch participants are taught the tell-tale signs of grow ops. Among them:

- - residents without regular jobs, but with nice cars or accoutrements

- - shuttered, covered or boarded windows, even on sunny days

- - window fans, sounds of fans or water

- - condensation on windows, steam from the roof, snow melts quickly on the roof

- - high levels of security with signs, dogs, alarms, fencing, window bars

- - skunk-like smells from the house

- - lights on constantly, power surges or brownouts, strange wires
outside the house

- - bags of soil or growing material visible but no signs of outdoor gardening

- - residents don't mix with others, the house is poorly tended, mail accumulates

- - entry to the home is through the garage or a back entrance

Pot Busts By The Book

Lawmakers are trying to make it harder for grow-ops to prosper with
new laws on the books:

- - The new proceeds of crime law -- the Civil Forfeiture Act -- came
into effect in April. It lets the province apply to the B.C. Supreme
Court to seize and sell the assets of criminals -- everything from
real estate to cars -- to cover city and law enforcement costs,
compensate victims, and provide grants to anti-crime projects.

- - Safety Standards Act amendments were made in April to allow B.C.
Hydro to release high hydro consumption records to municipal
authorities. Municipalities can share the information with police,
but it can't be used to obtain search warrants. Already, police make
about 5,000 FOI requests to B.C. Hydro for power usage records.

TAKE ACTION!

To sign up for Block Watch or Grow Watch contact:

Chilliwack Community Policing Centre: 604-792-8030

Hope Crime Prevention Society Office: 604-869-5900

Tell us about your community's street crime problems and solutions at
safestreets@png.canwest.com.