MORE MONEY FOR POLICE IS NOT THE DRUG SOLUTION

Enforcement is Only One of Four Pillars to Combat the Problem

The Vancouver police department's request for an additional $2.3
million is not getting a warm reception at city hall.

Councillors from both the Non-Partisan Association and the Coalition
of Progressive Electors have rejected the idea, which would help pay for
an aggressive police campaign to clean up the Downtown Eastside.

That might seem surprising since, at first blush, the request seems
reasonable: Vancouver could benefit from an increased police presence
throughout the city, particularly in the inner city.

Secondly, the department is facing something of a crisis in that 117
officers -- many of them senior personnel -- are considering
retirement because of a recent pension board ruling that would cut
their pensions by $200-$500 a month if they retire after the end of the
year.

Further, improved enforcement is one of the four pillars -- along with
prevention, treatment and harm reduction -- that council has adopted to
address the problem of drug addiction.

Nevertheless, we believe council will be right to reject the request.

Councillors are looking for ways to cut $6 million from the city
budget. The cut is necessary to ensure that tax increases will not
exceed the level of inflation -- something that COPE promised during
its successful election campaign, and something that this newspaper
supports.

Councillors are looking for creative ways to make that cut --
including the postponement of hiring and the consolidation of
services.

Giving $2.3 million to the police, who are also requesting additional
funds to hire new support staff, would severely hamper council's
effort control spending and property tax increases.

And it's debatable whether the money would solve the problems on the
Downtown Eastside.

The cash would go toward creating a team of 60 officers to deal with
the open drug dealing in the area. That would be effective in scaring
the dealers away from where they now hang out, but evidence from
similar experiments in other cities suggests that the drug trade will
simply move to another area of the city.

In fact, Vancouver recently tried the experiment by stationing
officers 24 hours a day at the corner of Main and Hastings.
Predictably, that ended the open drug dealing on the corner, but the
trade merely moved down the street, close to the Army & Navy store on
Hastings.

That suggests that the problem will not be solved by more enforcement
alone, which is why the strategy adopted by council contains four
pillars rather than one.

The other three pillars have got off to a slow start, but Vancouver
Mayor Larry Campbell has been working feverishly on the
highest-profile one -- opening a safe injection facility. The site is
still awaiting government approval and the identification of who will
provide the $1 million necessary to fund it.

The difficulties in establishing the site reveal that the solution to
the complex problem of drug addiction is itself complex. The addition
of sufficient treatment facilities will likely take even longer, but
the Vancouver Agreement allows for a cooperative effort between the city
and the provincial and federal governments to address the issue.

An invisible fifth pillar -- economic development, as in the
development of the Woodward's building -- is proceeding apace, but it, too,
will take time.

The police request for money amounts to a quick fix. Improved
enforcement is important, but it must work hand in hand with the other
pillars once they're up and running.

Ultimately, of course, we won't solve the problem of drug addiction
without increased police presence. But at this time, simply throwing
money at the problem won't solve it, either.