PUSHED-OUT PUSHERS PLAGUE MT. PLEASANT

Vancouver's volunteer crimefighters say they're swamped by complaints
of drug dealers spreading from the Downtown Eastside to other parts of
the city.

The situation is especially bad in Mount Pleasant, where crack
dealers, hookers and vagrants have taken over the Broadway strip at
Fraser.

Bob Whitely, a senior who runs the South Vancouver community policing
centre, said he's getting 800 phone complaints a month, up a third
from last year.

"The Downtown Eastside crackdown has moved a lot of the crime from the
Downtown Eastside into the suburbs," he said yesterday, after pleading
his case to city council.

In Mount Pleasant, Whitely says the area is rife with drug dealing,
prostitution, panhandling and homelessness.

His centre has about 250 volunteers but only one police officer to
follow up complaints.

That officer, Const. Mark Jarvie, said the small office in a shopping
complex on Victoria Drive has seen the volume of complaint calls,
reports and citizen walk-ins double over the past 18 months.

Businesses complain about phone booths being used to arrange drug
deals, while

residents complain about prostitutes and brothels, Jarvie
said.

Police move the dealers on, only to have them find a new booth and
eventually return to the original problem area, he said.

The volunteers, who range in age from 17 to 90, scramble to keep up,
as do police.

"We're community complaint driven. Whoever screams the loudest, we
respond," Jarvie said. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."

Last year, Vancouver police slashed the number of community policing
centres from 14 to eight owing to a funding crunch caused by the B.C.
government cutting its contribution. For the South Vancouver policing
centre, that meant its area of responsibility effectively doubled
overnight. Where once there were four such offices in southeast
Vancouver, there are now only two -- in South Vancouver and Grandview.

Whitely said the area under his watch has grown threefold while
funding has been slashed by 40 per cent.

"We are concerned about this," said Mayor Larry Campbell, who chairs
the Vancouver Police Board. Community policing centres "are really
stretched to the limit because they have, in fact, taken on other
areas outside of their boundaries."

Acting police chief Bob Rich agreed the police crackdown in the
Downtown Eastside "certainly did create some issues for other parts of
the city."

Chris Taulu, who runs the Collingwood policing centre, which includes
Commercial Drive, said that when she arrives for work at 8 a.m.,
people are lining up to complain.

"My cellphone is on 24/7 and it rings 24/7," she said.

One of those recent calls was from a woman complaining about a dodgy
house in her neighbourhood. A cop on the beat checked it out, leading
to a huge marijuana bust.

Councillors asked why the B.C. government had not honoured its promise
to give the community policing centres a slice of traffic-fine revenues.

Most of the centres rely on gaming revenue to stay open, and some even
raise money through raffles, garage sales and sale of chocolates.