POLICE LOBBY FOR NEW DISTRICT

Downtown Eastside's Unique Problems Need Focus, Police Say

A separate police district must be created to tackle the problems of the
Downtown Eastside, Vancouver police say.

In a report going to Vancouver city council Tuesday, Inspector Bob Rich
says such a district would help police develop a unique policing model for
the area and help officers become familiar with the community.

Vancouver is currently divided into four police districts, with the
troubled inner-city area being merely one part of a district covering the
whole northeast corner of Vancouver out to Boundary Road.

Inspector Doug LePard, the senior police officer in charge of a recent
crackdown on the open drug market in the Downtown Eastside, said Friday a
new district would address the area's specific problems.

"There are issues that are unique to this area and they deserve the
attention of people focused on that district," LePard said.

The proposed new district would extend from the waterfront to Union Street,
from Cambie east to Clark Drive.

While the district would be one of the smallest geographically, it would be
densely populated, with about 16,000 residents.

The creation of a new district is one more argument being made to convince
dubious councillors they should invest more money in the enforcement arm of
a city-wide drug strategy developed two years ago.

Over the last three months, police have launched an unprecedented crackdown
against drug dealers in the Downtown Eastside. Their work so far, they say,
has successfully reclaimed the corner of Hastings and Main for residents
and merchants.

In his report to council, Rich will recommend the city put up $1.19 million
to allow the police department to continue its efforts until the end of the
year.

Enforcement of drug laws is one of the "four pillars" of the city's new
strategy to combat drug use. The other pillars are prevention and
treatment, along with better health care for addicts.

Police surprised everyone -- including city and health officials working
with them on ways to get the four-pillars strategy going -- by embarking
last April on a controversial crackdown on the open drug market on Hastings
Street in the Downtown Eastside.