POT GROWING LIKELY TO BE HOT TOPIC FOR CHIEFS

Regina's police chief says resolutions dealing with marijuana grow
operations may be one of the hot topics being discussed today at the
Canadian Association of Police Chiefs 99th annual conference in
Vancouver, as delegates consider 14 resolutions on the conference's
closing day.

"You will probably see resolutions in the area with respect to
marijuana grow operations, and the hazards they create in communities
as well as the profits they generate, often for organized crime,"
Chief Cal Johnston said from the conference Tuesday.

The exact nature of the resolution is confidential until it is voted
on this afternoon.

Another resolution is focused around lawful access, which would update
the ability of police to monitor electronic communications in the
course of certain investigations.

"The laws we have were put in place when we just used rotary
telephones, now the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police are
strongly advocating that the laws need to be updated because, of
course, you've got Internet, you've got digital cell phone, you've got
fax and all these other mechanisms," Johnston said.

Though it won't be raised as a resolution, another topic of interest
is the establishment of new ways to deal with aboriginal and First
Nations people, which the Regina Police Service helped initiate.
Johnston says the network, which was discussed Tuesday, will include
special training and cultural relations practises in policing.

"That's an area I know the RPS is strongly interested in, and one
where we believe we can all improve out performance to achieve better
outcomes for communities," he said.

Johnston says the annual conference helps ensure the same standard of
policing around the Canada.

"What occurs, or what should occur, is that we share knowledge and we
exchange ideas about things that didn't work or things that are
working well, so we keep pace with each other.

"So you don't have these wide disparities where one organization or
some part of the country ... are doing very well and other areas are
doing very poorly," he said. "It helps to keep everybody at a higher
standard."