REGIONAL COOPERATION NEEDED TO TACKLE CRIME

The Mayors Of Vancouver And Surrey Must Work Together To Address Drug
Addiction And The Woes It Entails

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum's zero-tolerance approach to crime in an area of
Whalley that's run-down, drug-infested and crime-ridden is a copy of a
strategy that worked in cities like New York and Boston.

Mayor McCallum is aware that one danger of such an approach is to drive
crime from one part of his town to another. But in this region of
close-packed municipalities, a tough anti-crime drive in Whalley could just
as easily chase the criminals to somebody else's community.

New Westminster, Burnaby -- every Lower Mainland municipality is
vulnerable, none more so than Vancouver where Mayor Larry Campbell and
council are talking about much gentler ways to deal with drug abusers.

So Mayor McCallum's actions are a sharp reminder that Mayor Campbell cannot
afford to play down the law enforcement part of his city's four-pillar
strategy to combat crime in the Downtown Eastside.

In the wake of two vicious home invasions in Surrey, we understand Mr.
McCallum's concern and we applaud his determination to clean up the Whalley
area and protect law-abiding residents. But we doubt that getting tough
will be enough to end the crime, not just shift it, given the depth of
problems faced by addicted drug users.

Mr. McCallum's approach is based on the "Broken Windows" theory of crime
prevention. It holds that if small things like graffiti and vandalism go
unpunished, criminals are emboldened to go on to more serious crimes --
burglaries or assaults. Zero tolerance for any infraction is seen as the
way to stop such escalation.

Professor Paul Brantingham of Simon Fraser University says a successful
Broken Windows program has to have "consistent, predictable and vigorous
law enforcement."

Mr. McCallum pledges to put pressure on the courts to put criminals with
multiple convictions behind bars for a lot longer than most serve now -- a
good idea that we endorse.

Mr. McCallum, cast in the last election campaign as a hard-liner, now seems
to understand that enforcement alone won't solve the drug and crime problem
in Whalley or anywhere else. He says he supports much of Vancouver's
four-pillar approach, though he draws the line at safe injection sites.

Only on that last point do we think he's wrong.

The four-pillar strategy includes prevention (education and awareness);
treatment (detox centres, outpatient counselling and residential treatment
facilities); harm reduction (safe injection sites and access to methadone),
and enforcement (more policing, arrests and long sentences for repeat
offenders).

In the past -- whether it's transit issues or the harm reduction programs
- -- Mr. McCallum has had a tendency to look at things from a strictly local
perspective, not a regional view. Well, Surrey is his community, so it's
hard to fault him too much for that.

But there are some problems -- drugs and crime in particular -- that spill
over the boundaries of every neighbouring jurisdiction -- Surrey, Vancouver
and all the others. And the only intelligent way to tackle these big,
multi-jurisdictional problems is through regional cooperation.

So we are pleased that Mr. McCallum says he plans to meet with Mr. Campbell
to discuss a more regional approach to the drug and crime problem.

During the civic election campaigns in both communities last fall, Mr.
Campbell didn't have much nice to say about Surrey's plan to drive
methadone clinics out of the community by increasing the annual licensing
fee to $10,000 from $195.

The rhetoric of the campaign, however, shouldn't stop the two mayors from
engaging in a constructive dialogue. The problem -- how to reduce drug use
and prevent crimes -- is too big for either one of them alone.

We call on Mayor Campbell, whose campaign focused so heavily on making the
Downtown Eastside more habitable for everyone, to take Mayor McCallum up on
his offer to meet, and for both of them to spare no effort to figure out
together how to tackle the regional menace of drugs and crime.