COUNCIL TO LOOK AT OTHER CITIES FOR SOLUTIONS TO CRIME, SOCIAL ISSUES

City aldermen want to look to other cities for creative solutions in
combatting the escalating problems of crime, drugs, homelessness and
prostitution throughout Calgary.

Ald. Craig Burrows and Ald. Druh Farrell will put forward a joint motion at
Monday's council meeting requesting administration make a report looking at
what other municipalities have done to deal with these problems and others,
including loitering, fighting, panhandling and littering.

Burrows said the plan is to look to cities such as Vancouver that have
adopted aggressive approaches to similar problems and examine the
possibility of having a multi-tiered approach in Calgary that would utilize
city police, peace officers and bylaw officers.

"You don't need to send police officers to every little problem that
requires law enforcement," Burrows explained Saturday.

Implementing bylaws and fines to combat the problems may be one option, he
said, adding that efforts to crack down on fighting and drugs are often
stymied by the federal young offenders legislation.

"People doing single crack deals aren't being charged. Kids fighting aren't
being charged," he said.

"Frankly, if you're under 18 years old, you can pretty much do anything;
you can get away with anything but murder."

Evidence that the problem is escalating is all around us, he added,
explaining that a fight 25 years ago would end after a few hits, but today
the city sees more violence involving beer bottles and knives.

"All of a sudden, a fight turns into a riot," he said.

Although the original motion revolved around Calgary's downtown core, the
amended motion will cover the entire city and will encapsulate the East
Village Action plan, said Farrell.

That plan is designed to look at best practices in other cities on issues
of prostitution, drug addiction and homelessness.

"You can't just look at crime and enforcement and social issues
separately," she said.

Calgary Downtown Association executive director Richard White said the
association fully supports the motion and has been working with the city
and police to look at various pieces of legislation that would help the
situation.

He said the question has become how can the city get bylaw officers to deal
with bylaw infractions and police to deal with Criminal Code infractions.

"A good percentage of police time is taken up with non-criminal activity,"
he said.

He added that they would like to see the bylaw program stepped up as a more
cost-effective measure to combat problems in the inner city.

If the motion passes, administration will make a report in September about
their findings and bring forward recommendations to council.