POLICE CHIEF REQUESTS MORE OFFICERS AS GUNS AND GROW-OPS MULTIPLY

When a prostitute is found dead in a corn field and grow-ops are
setting up shop two doors down from the police chief's home, you know
something just ain't right with suburbia.

But this is the new reality for Abbotsford as urbanization trudges
into town, hauling with it big-city crime.

"There's no doubt our crime rate has gone up," said Abbotsford police
Chief Ian Mackenzie. "Last year, our crime rate was 120 Criminal Code
offences per 1,000 people. And back in about 2000, it was 90 Criminal
Code offences per 1,000 people."

To keep up, Mackenzie asked council Monday to increase the $22 million
police budget by $3.2 million next year.

The cash injection could partly be funded by the return of traffic
fines from Victoria to municipal governments, which was announced by
Premier Gordon Campbell last Friday. The rest would have to be funded
by an estimated 3.7-per-cent property tax increase.

The Abbotsford police force currently has 173 officers and the extra
money would be used to hire about 14 more. Mackenzie's hopes to add 55
officers over the next five years.

A Statistics Canada survey showed there were 5.1 homicides per every
100,000 people in Abbotsford in 2003 -- the highest in the country
alongside Regina.

Mackenzie said the numbers were skewed because Mission's crime rate
was pooled with Abbotsford.

Still, the chief agreed that property crime has become one of the
city's biggest problems, that auto theft has risen 50 per cent in the
past two years, grow-op busts have increased 40 per cent over the past
year and guns are more common.

"I don't want to scare the public, but our officers are coming across
guns fairly regularly," he said. "I was a Vancouver cop for a number
of years before I came out here and I don't recall that when I was
working in the Downtown Eastside 15 years ago."

Some of the crime to make headlines recently include the discovery of
the body of prostitute Charity Marie Cassell in a corn field in Sumas
Prairie on Sept. 16 and two grow-op busts last Thursday.

Several months ago, Mackenzie said, a grow-op was busted just two
doors from his home.

He attributes the rising crime to urbanization.

"Generally speaking, the more urbanized the community, the higher the
crime rate," he said.

Abbotsford also has a slightly higher percentage of men between age 18
and 34 -- the main group responsible for crime.

According to the latest Abbotsford Police Board Statistical Report,
thefts over $5,000 increased 45 per cent to 58 from January to July
2004 from 40 cases for the same period in 2003, assaults were up nine
per cent to 585 cases from 538, and break and enters were up seven per
cent to 897 cases from 838.

Mayor Mary Reeves, who supports increasing the police budget, is
calling for stiffer penalties to city bylaws and for cash from seized
proceeds of crime to be returned to cities. It is currently shared by
Ottawa and Victoria.