SURREY'S 'ZERO TOLERANCE' MAYOR MEANS BUSINESS

When Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum vowed "zero tolerance" against
lawlessness in his community last year, I suspect few really knew how
far this fella was prepared to go with his crackdown on crime.

To date, the no-nonsense mayor has erected road barriers and torn out
drug-trade pay phones and crime-concealing shrubbery, beefed up police
patrols on SkyTrain and the streets of Whalley, aggressively targeted
auto theft, demolished crack shacks and derelict homes, rousted
prostitutes and aggressively pursued outstanding arrest warrants. Most
famously, Mayor McCrackdown's boys in blue now shut down a Surrey
grow-op at a rate of one a day, the scruffs in cuffs escorted into the
idling paddy wagons in time for the evening news.

This is all good stuff to the upstanding citizens of Surrey,
long-tired of living in Compton North and suffering a daily barrage of
Surrey jokes on JACK FM as they make their way to work.

But just when it seemed Mayor McCrackdown had reached the bottom of
his bag of crime-fighting tricks, lo and behold, he pulls out another
whopper.

McCallum announced last week that the city is considering adding eight
great horses to the Surrey RCMP, as well as a dedicated, high-tech
helicopter. He's serious, too.

Just imagine the nighttime scene along 135A Street, the cavalry
charging down the tarmac under the roaring rotors and blinding
spotlight of a pursuing police chopper, Mayor McCallum leaning
fearlessly out the side of the whirly bird, megaphone in hand:

"You can run, you criminal scum, but you cannot hide! Surrey is mine.
Mine, all mine!"

A flight of fancy, perhaps. But the Surrey RCMP have prepared a
business plan for implementing a mounted force, which would be a first
for the Canadian RCMP since 1941.

And the helicopter? Mayor McCallum wants a "silent," whisper-mode
chopper, a la Blue Thunder.

By land, by air and on horseback, the good mayor means business. The
Surrey RCMP is currently looking to hire a full-time helicopter pilot
and is reportedly training four "spotters" schooled in the use of
thermal imaging.

This is all going to cost, of course. The horses -- animals, barns,
trucks -- come with an estimated $2-million price tag. Surrey's Blue
Thunder would cost at least $3 million.

Mayor McCrackdown -- who's quite quick to point out that "there's some
tourism that is certainly part of any big city with Mounties on
horseback" -- hopes to attract private-sector dollars to his latest
crime-fighting initiatives. Like he's going to have any problem! The
Chamber of Commerce will be tripping over itself to put the money in
the hand of the man with the plan. Local businesses will be lining up
like kids at an Idol audition to help him with the capital costs.

No, as far as he goes with his crackdown on crime, Surrey Mayor
McCallum can count on one thing: the support of the people who live
there.