POLICE WIELD MIGHTY BROOM IN WHALLEY

Operation Clean Sweep, Started Earlier This Month, Has Erased Prostitution
And Drug-Dealing

Surrey RCMP know it simply as "the strip" -- the collection of methadone
clinics, homeless shelters and chain-link fences in Whalley that for years
has attracted more than its share of drug-dealing, prostitution and
assorted crime.

"It has been the number-one hotspot," said Surrey RCMP spokesman Constable
Tim Shields. "For open drug sales and prostitution, it has the highest
intensity of all of Surrey."

The stretch of 135A Street, between 106th and 108th Avenues, has been
subject to some of the most intense policing in the country -- everything
from road barricades to regular bike patrols -- but nothing seemed to work.

Until now.

Earlier this month, Surrey RCMP launched Operation Clean Sweep, a major
effort to try to clean up the area with 20-hour-a-day foot patrols and
roadblocks at least once a week.

The strip is only a quarter-kilometre long, but since Aug. 9, there have
been two uniformed police officers walking up and down the street from 7
a.m. to 3 a.m., seven days a week.

During just the first week of the crackdown, police seized drugs from 41
people, arrested 17 on outstanding warrants, arrested another 10 for being
in breach of bail conditions and issued 64 traffic tickets. And last week,
police recovered a loaded handgun from under the seat of a biker gang
associate's car.

"Looking for Criminal Code offences in this area is like shooting fish in a
barrel," said Shields.

Criminals seem to have gotten the message.

On Thursday afternoon, Constables Nathan Menard and Mike Ingles were
walking up and down the strip as usual. While there were some homeless
people milling around, there were no signs of prostitution or drug dealing.

"We're driving the criminal element out," said Ingles. "Now we just have
the legitimate homeless -- the people who simply need a hand up. And
they're thanking us for being here and driving out the criminal element
that was making it unsafe for them."

On Thursday afternoon, Surrey RCMP even hosted a barbecue at the Front Room
drop-in centre to help build contacts with the drug users and poor
residents of the area.

Nearby business owners say they're happy with the increased police presence.

"It's been very positive," said Pete Nichols, head of the Whalley Business
Improvement Association and owner of Whalley Printers -- which backs onto
the strip.

"Whalley has always had the reputation of going downhill. But the last few
years especially, it has become really really bad," Nichols said.

And with the recent crackdown on drug dealing in Vancouver displacing
dealers and users to Whalley, the area was running the risk of becoming a
"mini-Downtown Eastside" in the heart of suburbia, Nichols said.

Nichols said most of his printing customers now ask for their orders to be
delivered, because they're too afraid to come pick them up.

But since the renewed police crackdown, he said, things seem to be improving.

"There's been a huge difference," he said. "The people coming down that
street that shouldn't be there and have no business in the area -- they see
the police there and they're going to move on. They're not going to stop."

But not everyone is happy with the police crackdown.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association alleges that police are using
roadblocks to ferret out criminal behaviour.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that roadblocks are permissible if
they are designed to deal with road safety issues -- like drunk-driving or
seatbelt use -- but they cannot be used to investigate other crimes.

"I don't think police are targeting a two-block strip of Whalley because
they believe there are a dramatic number of people driving around without
their seatbelts on," said Kirk Tousaw, policy director for the BCCLA.

"If they were looking for motor vehicle offences, they could be doing
[roadblocks] anywhere in Surrey. But they're doing it in a two-block radius
of Whalley with a problem with drugs and prostitutes. ... It's a fishing
expedition. And it's a fishing expedition that violates the Charter."

Tousaw said the BCCLA has written to Surrey RCMP urging an end to the
practice and is considering lodging a formal complaint with the police
complaints commissioner.

But Shields insisted police are looking for motor vehicle offences --
because the area is known for high rates of impaired driving and people
driving without a licence.

"We are not arbitrarily detaining anyone," Shields said. "We're looking for
seatbelt compliance. We're looking for driver's licence and insurance
compliance. But we're also keeping a watchful eye for impaired drivers,
stolen cars and stolen property in cars."

Shields denied police are infringing people's rights.

"We're fully cognizant of every Canadian's rights under the Charter for
freedom of movement," he said. "Having said that, the public expects and
demands that we take action, because the legitimate users of that area have
been pushed out by aggressive drug dealers."

Shields said the round-the-clock foot patrols on the strip are being funded
through a special $100,000 payment from the city of Surrey. That money will
run out at the end of September, at which point police will decide whether
to continue.

Shields said police are aware of the risk of simply displacing criminal
behaviour to other communities and so have beefed up patrols in nearby
neighbourhoods as well.

Menard and Ingles said they're impressed with the impact their presence has
had on the strip so far, but have no illusions about the difficulties of
cleaning up the area for good.

"In the short term, [the patrols] let us establish that crime and
lawlessness can't continue here," Ingles said. "But it will take a
sustained effort, over a long period of time, to drive them out."