ARREST-AND-DUMP POLICY TROUBLES MAYOR

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell is calling for a review of the police
department's policy on arresting troublemakers for breaching the peace.

In such arrests, suspects are detained, taken to remote neighbourhoods and
released without charge.

The mayor said he does not favour the policy and will raise it with the
police board.

"I don't see how it solves the problem," said Campbell, who is chairman of
the board.

"Say you have a problem in west Point Grey, somebody's drunk and causing a
problem. Do you take them and drop them in Kits? You've just moved the
problem from one place to another."

The controversial policy, used by many Canadian police departments, is
under fire in Saskatoon, where police are accused of dumping aboriginals on
the outskirts of town. In at least one case, a man froze to death.

Const. Sarah Bloor said Vancouver's policy on arrests for breaches of the
peace complies with the Criminal Code.

She refused to discuss specifics, stating "the policy may be reviewed."

The department's policy was questioned in a recent court case in which six
police officers were convicted of assaulting a trio of suspected drug
dealers in Stanley Park.

No charges were laid against the victims, leading Provincial Court Judge
Herb Weitzel to question the policy, which encourages the liberal use of
arrests for breaching the peace.

During the sentencing hearing, Weitzel cautioned that breach arrests were
never meant to substitute for charges an officer would like to lay but
could not support.

Concerns about the ways in which police use the "breaching" provision in
the Criminal Code have been raised in the past by the B.C. Civil Liberties
Society and by Pivot, a legal advocacy group that has documented dozens of
complaints of police misconduct in the Downtown Eastside.