DRUG CRACKDOWN TO CONTINUE: VPD CHIEF

If the city won't pay for a six-month extension of a drug crackdown in
areas such as the Downtown Eastside, the Vancouver police department will
find the resources to continue the program on its own, Vancouver's police
chief says.

Jamie Graham said Wednesday he understands council's decision not to give
the department the $2.3 million it had requested, but promised that a lack
of funding will not mean abandonment of the project.

"One thing we're not going to do is fold up our tent and we're not going to
go home," Graham said. "We will look forward to other ways of efficiency
from working within our department and working with other partners and
municipal agencies and the RCMP."

Police, who began a three-month crackdown on the drug market this week, had
asked council for $2.3 million so it could extend the program another six
months, to the end of the year. Council unanimously rejected the request
Tuesday.

To create a visible and effective police presence in the Downtown Eastside,
the police department has reassigned 40 officers from areas including
property crime, traffic, the major crimes unit, Stanley Park equine patrol,
and community policing centres. (The area already had 20 officers.)

For some volunteers who staff the city's 18 community policing offices,
there is concern that they are losing the officers who know them best at a
time when they might need them most.

With the likelihood that some of the crime on the Downtown Eastside will be
displaced to other areas, Eileen Mosca said her Commercial Drive
neighbourhood needs officers who can tell the serious criminals from the
petty troublemakers.

But the three officers who know her community so well have been reassigned
to the enforcement team.

Mosca - the vice president of the Grandview-Woodland Community Policing
Centre - said although there is no evidence drug dealers or users have been
pushed into her neighbourhood since the beginning of the police crackdown
three days ago, she expects that will change soon.

Other community policing centres that have lost officers include Dunbar,
Kitsilano, Little Mountain/Riley Park, Gastown, Chinatown, Hastings North
and Strathcona.

Mark Budgen, the acting coordinator at Strathcona Community Policing
Centre, said Vancouver simply doesn't have a large enough force to dedicate
so many officers to one problem.

"New York was able to achieve what it achieved [cleaning up street crime in
the 1990s] with three times the number of officers per thousand population
that Vancouver has," he said.

"Vancouver doesn't have the surplus to do a major operation like this, so
they have to take people away from other jobs to do this and they have to
pay overtime."

The heavier police presence in the Downtown Eastside in the past three days
has made a huge difference already, said Rory Nymark, who works at Save-On
Meats on Hastings.

"I noticed it right away and thought about it again this morning when I was
walking to work and drinking my coffee. It was a strange feeling to not
feel like I had to be on guard or watch my back."

Nymark said city council's decision to turn down the extra funding was wrong.

"I don't know why they wouldn't say, 'We'll see how this turns out and then
make a decision.' Everyone who works down here and lives down here are
noticing a big improvement already."

Nymark said he hopes residents and owners in downtown will lobby council to
provide the funding from somewhere. "Even if that doesn't work, I'll feel
like I get a vacation for three months."

At the Vancouver Film School at 198 West Hastings, security guard Bryan
Djakovacki said he doesn't worry about students going outside to smoke any
longer.

"Last week I was telling them not to be out here," said Djakovacki,
gesturing to the near-empty street. "Because this corner and street was
full of drug dealers. Now 80 per cent of them are gone. Ask that guy," he
pointed, "he's one of the instructors. We've all seen the difference that
police here have made."

But the instructor identified by Djakovacki denied there have been
noticeable changes in front of the school.

"I haven't noticed any difference," said Jim Stone. "The police haven't
made any difference. We need a safe-injection site, not an attempt to fix
the symptoms."

Police are not denying that the drug and crime problems of the Downtown
Eastside will be pushed into other neighbourhoods, but said they are
working on strategies to minimize the possible concentration of the
displacement.

Police and RCMP detachments in municipalities surrounding Vancouver said
they are aware of the city's crackdown and are being extra vigilant in
their patrols of the SkyTrain and its suburban stations.

New Westminster police Sergeant Casey Dehaas said his force worked very
hard to clean up that city's drug problem four years ago and doesn't want
the problem coming back.

"Don't bother coming to New Westminster to deal drugs," Dehaas warned
traffickers.

Vancouver police Inspector Kash Heed, who heads the force's drug unit, said
police crackdowns on open drug markets have predictable effects besides
just breaking up the current market.

He said non-addicted traffickers are likely to move out of the territory as
soon as a crackdown happens, while addicted traffickers will stay, even
though they know there is increased presence.

"If you're an addicted trafficker, you'll be out there no matter what. They
need their money and drugs."

The professionals will look for either a different area or a different way
to sell drugs, he said.

"I'm sure in a week's time we'll see areas where they start to vie for
territory and set up shop."

One of the prime areas is likely to be the central business district,
especially the Dunsmuir area around Richards and Seymour. Heed said
Chinatown, at Pender and Keefer, has already seen dealers move in and there
may be more, and Gastown is likely to see more activity. As well, part of
the crowd will likely move northeast to Oppenheimer park.

Cathy Kwan, the coordinator at the Strathcona Business Improvement
Association, said business owners have high hopes there will be permanent
changes and not just relocations.

"Because of our close proximity to the Downtown Eastside, we're concerned,
of course, about displacement."

The Strathcona BIA represents 500 businesses from Gore Ave. to Clark Drive
and Venables to the waterfront.

"Even though the community is not right there at Hastings, the people here
feel the effects," Kwan said Wednesday.

Gastown business owner and resident Dale Johnson said he was frustrated by
city council's decision not to fund more police officers.

"I have seen the results since Monday and in the last little while when
more police are on the streets. I hope there was some way they could see
for themselves what difference it's made."

Johnson, who owns The Games People, said Gastown is seeing more drug users
and drug dealers as a result of the push out of the Hastings and Main corner.

"But they're very chastened by the time they get here. I can tell them to
go away and they will," Johnson said. "There's fewer of them so it's easier
to ask them to move. If there was a whole large group, I wouldn't feel
comfortable doing that."