DRUGS, SPEEDERS? WHAT CONCERNS YOU?

On a scale of one to five, how important is it for you to know your
neighbour has a drug lab?

How do you rank traffic issues in your community?

And have you ever complained about the police - collectively or
individually?

These and 39 other questions will be posed to 500 Port Moody residents
next week as part of a telephone survey for the city's police department.

PMPD is planning how to spend its multi-million dollar budget for the
next three years and wants feedback on how to improve its services. It
will also gauge the community's expectations of the department as well
as determine it perception of crime and attitudes about safety.

"What we want to know is, are we doing a good job and, if not, how can
we do better?" Chief Const. Paul Shrive said. "A while back, we had a
focus group to get some ideas and we were told that we're not making
the most of our volunteers. That little piece of information was a
real eye-opener for us."

The survey, developed with SFU criminologist Bill Glackman, will
randomly target 500 homeowners; the phone poll is expected to take
about 15 minutes and will be carried out between 3 and 8 p.m. for two
weeks starting May 28. The department hired five students from PMSS
and a supervisor to ask questions.

The budget for the survey is $6,000 but Shrive considers it money
well-spent. "For us not to spend this money and to manage a $3.7
million police budget is like buying an airline ticket but not knowing
the destination," he said.

Results, which will be correlated by Glackman, will be ready by
September.

According to PMPD's annual report for 2000, the city has changed
significantly in the past 25 years, from a bedroom community to a
suburb of Vancouver - the busiest drug entry port in Canada, home to
the Hell's Angels, the Big Circle Boys, other organized crime and a
host of other criminal operations.

Crimes such as armed robbery and marijuana growing operations are now
commonplace in the city: a grow op investigation ties up two
detectives for four to six days, and 10 grow op inquiries are ongoing
in the department at any given time.

These days, crime centres on drug and alcohol abuse. The more serious
offences in PoMo are home invasions, prostitution, drug labs and
attempted murders.

Last year, PoMo Police responded to 14,719 requests for service,
including several for the Serious Crime Section. Some of the cases
investigated by the section in 2000, which were made public last
month, included:

* An attempted murder of a young woman by her boyfriend; the man beat
her and was about to slit her throat when relatives and friends
intervened. He was charged with attempted murder.

* The seizure of 36 firearms from a home, including a restricted
handgun for which no permit existed, and two prohibited handguns.

* Shutdown of a major methamphetamine lab with Coquitlam RCMP. The
accused pleaded guilty and is now serving four years in jail.

* Monitoring of a major drug trafficker who had moved to PoMo after an
attempt was made to kill him. As a result of the monitoring, the
trafficker moved away and has since been arrested in Portland.

* Investigation of an internet fraud ring that resulted in three young
people being charged.

The department has also had to contend with drug traffickers returning
to PoMo.

Two years ago, PMPD officers launched Project Youth Downsize to
eliminate high-profile traffickers in the area but most have now been
released from jail, according to the report.

"The CIS section does not have the resources to mount a sustained
effort of drug enforcement to combat these traffickers," the report
said. "A good majority of youth addicted to heroin identified in
Project Downsize continue to suffer and strain police resources,
committing robberies, assaults, break and enters, [stealing] vehicles
and are involved in domestic disputes with their parents."