STREET MINISTRY CALLS IN COPS

Undercover Operation Employed To Clean Up Flagrant Drug Dealing

Saying he was losing control of his Open Door street ministry to drug
dealers, Rev. Al Tysick finally called in the police for help.

Following a week-long undercover operation, police were rounding up
eight men and one woman Wednesday. The nine are charged with
trafficking in crystal methamphetamine or cocaine and one is charged
with possession of crystal meth for the purpose of
trafficking.

"I had stopped and talked to a lot of the drug dealers and drug users
and asked them to take it someplace else. They weren't taking it
someplace else," Tysick said.

"We were getting people shooting up in the neck in the middle of the
day."

The Open Door, a drop-in centre in the 900 block of Pandora Avenue,
had to be closed a couple of times in the middle of the day because of
violence, Tysick said.

"It was just out of hand, and if you're not in control of your drop-in
centre, someone else is. It came to the point where they were in
control and we weren't."

Tysick acknowledged he was risking his credibility with the street
community by working so closely with the police, but said he had no
choice.

He said the drug problem started about a year ago and has escalated
since, with dealing and using becoming so flagrant over the past six
months that the people involved were no longer even bothering to hide
from view.

Tysick said he has never before called on the police for help of this
kind. He said he warned "his family" on several occasions that he
would take action if the abuse of the facility did not stop.

Victoria Police Insp. Grant Smith said police found through the
undercover operation "that anyone from the Greater Victoria area
seemed to know that the 900-block of Pandora had become a very common
and easy place to obtain crystal meth and cocaine."

The short undercover operation involved Victoria police and police
from Oak Bay, Delta, New Westminster and the RCMP, Smith said. Only
small amounts of drugs were seized.

Dealers had set up a street hierarchy where more established dealers
would take preferred locations, he said.

"What we're very keen on ensuring doesn't re-establish itself, is this
very well-knit trafficking of illegal drugs mechanism that had
established in the 900 block of Pandora," Smith said.

Tysick will hire night security as well as two more day staff who will
be instructed to work outside the building while doing their advocacy
so activities can be monitored.

Smith said police will work with neighbouring businesses, assessing
their concerns, and plan to work with the city on addressing issues
such as street lighting and looking at eliminating some alcoves and
street configurations that lend themselves to drug abuse.