POLICE INDEPENDENCE IS VITAL

There'll be no two-tiered law enforcement in Kelowna. Solicitor
General John Les thinks it's better for communities to build up a
backlog of grow-ops and property-crime cases to investigate than to
allow them to hire additional cops on their own.

CrimeStoppers in that Okanagan city had raised about $70,000 out of
the $250,000 needed to hire three officers to deal specifically with
grow-ops and property crime. A fundraising campaign was about to be
launched to raise the rest, and local politicians and residents
appeared to be behind the initiative -- purported to be the first of
its kind in North America -- until people began wondering whether the
independence of police would be jeopardized.

Les said it would look as if businesses contributing to the cost of
hiring new officers might get preferential treatment. The police, he
said, must be seen to be independent.

The money raised will be returned to the donors, and the gap between
the number of tips and the number of police investigations of
grow-ops will continue to widen. Les says Kelowna should use some of
the more than $1 million it gets from traffic-fine revenues to hire
more members for its RCMP detachment.

Kelowna's problem isn't unique. Police everywhere are diverting more
resources to go after cocaine dealers than those growing marijuana.
In some parts of the U.S. city halls are giving out phone numbers so
that businesses and property owners can hire off-duty cops to keep them safe.

We don't want the kind of gated communities guarded by heavily armed
private cops that we see in affluent neighbourhoods in the U.S.
Neither do we expect our police to wear sponsors' brand names and logos.

But it would be a shame to see the Kelowna initiative shut down
entirely. If private funding for police officers is out of the
question, it is acceptable for things like police vehicles, equipment
and facilities which would allow the budget to be redirected to hire
the additional officers needed.

Community involvement is what CrimeStoppers is all about. Community
involvement is often what stops crime.