ANTI-CRIME STREET TEAM DRAWS PRAISE

The announcement of an RCMP street crime reduction team is good news
for the Whitehorse business community says Rick Karp, president of
the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce.

The Yukon government announced on Monday of last week that it will
provide the RCMP with $1.4 million over three years to establish the team.

"What it means is that these additional police officers will be
exclusively dedicated to tackle crime hot spots and prolific
criminal offenders on our streets," Dave Shewchuk, the RCMP's chief
superintendent, said at the news conference where the announcement was made.

The team will be made up of eight people -- six police officers
focused on enforcement and two civilians working on intelligence
analysis and communications.

Ultimately, they will be working to destroy the illegal drug trade
in the territory from people bringing drugs into the territory to
dealers. The initiative will also deal with crimes related to drugs
like theft and those related to alcohol like bootlegging.

Any kind of strengthened RCMP presence tends to see the number of
crimes in that area go down. That will likely mean a decrease in the
number of crimes happening against local businesses, Karp said,
adding he looks forward to seeing more officers on the street when
the initiative begins.

"We're really in support of that," he said. He added his
appreciation of the Yukon government in funding and the local RCMP
in establishing the team.

The initiative, though, has left Liberal and NDP opposition members
with some questions.

Both Liberal justice critic Don Inverarity and acting NDP Leader
Steve Cardiff agreed the initiative is a positive step. However,
they also suggested it's a "pre-budget budget announcement" for next
spring because the program is not set to start until April, roughly
the time when the 2007 budget is tabled in the legislature.

"It's kind of sad nothing's going to happen between now and April,"
Cardiff said.

Inverarity said he'd like to see police start planning for the
initiative between now and April.

As Inverarity pointed out, the Yukon Party government didn't seem to
have any kind of answer when he asked where the money will come from.

Inverarity suggested it should also go beyond dealing with issues in
Whitehorse and reach into the communities.

"Otherwise, it's a great program," he said.

The initiative is part of the territorial government's Substance
Abuse Action Plan, falling under the enforcement part of the project.

Enforcement initiatives are only one of four parts of the plan
though, Cardiff said. There has been no such announcement on dealing
with the other aspects of education, treatment and harm reduction, he noted.

Although enforcement is important, statistics have shown there tend
to be better results on crime through education, treatment and harm
reduction rather than enforcement, Cardiff said.

He hopes more initiatives will be announced to deal with various
aspects of the Substance Abuse Action Plan.

While enforcement programs look good in the media, Cardiff said,
unfortunately it's education, harm reduction and treatment that are
effective in dealing with crimes.

"It's got to be positive," Mayor Bev Buckway said Monday.

She pointed to the city's Citizens Survey done earlier this year
which showed residents have concerns about drug crimes and break and enters.

Other results showed some residents don't feel safe walking downtown.

Buckway acknowledged April may seem like a lot of time to wait for
the crime reduction team to get started.

However, she also noted that being in government, she knows of the
amount of time it can take to work out budgets and programs for them
to be done properly.

"Let's do it right," she said.