DRUG RAIDERS 'ROUTINELY' DESTROYED PRIVATE PROPERTY

The Practice 'Will Damage This Department's Credibility,' Senior
Police Officers Were Warned

In their fight against the city's pot trade, Vancouver police
conducted searches without warrants and destroyed private property --
even though senior officers were warned the actions might be against
the law, according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Both practices have since been halted, police said this week.

The documents are contained in 267 pages of internal police e-mails
and memos obtained by The Sun under the Freedom of Information Act.

A memo sent last Sept. 6 to Inspector Wayne Melymick, head of special
investigations, raises concerns about the destruction of property by
police officers on the Grow Busters team, which was set up to put
pressure on growing operations -- by seizing marijuana and shutting
off the home's power -- without pursuing criminal charges.

The officer, who writes that he was seconded to the Grow Busters team
for the month of August, recounts that during 36 raids he witnessed
property being routinely destroyed.

"The police and city electrical personnel ... disabled virtually any
equipment used for the growing of the marijuana including light pots,
fans, furnace fans, water pumps, shrouds, wires, cords, ionizers and
timers," he wrote. "Most of the items were destroyed by being hit
with hammers or stepped on to break them."

The memo's author says that while he believes police have the
authority to seize marijuana and growing equipment as evidence, "I
can find no authorization for police members ... to destroy property,
even if it is property used to produce an illegal substance."

"I discussed this issue with Constable [name deleted]. He stated that
the city electrical technicians were 'making the equipment safe.' In
reality, unplugging the power and waiting 20 minutes makes all the
equipment in a grow operation 'safe'," he wrote. "The goal appears to
be to make the equipment unusable. [This] may be effective in
frustrating the drug dealers, which is a good thing, but in the long
run this practice will damage this department's credibility and could
result in both civil and possible criminal sanctions against our
members if continued. Inevitably, we will be questioned on our
practices by the courts, the press or both. ... The damage to
property is indefensible."

The name of the memo's author was deleted from the copy provided to
The Sun, but the author's badge number, 1662, remained.

That is the badge number of Detective Constable Mike Pollard of the
drug squad. Reached by phone earlier this week, Pollard refused to
comment on whether he authored the memo.

Inspector Val Harrison, coordinator of the Grow Busters program, said
this week the department, on legal advice, has stopped destroying
growing equipment and now simply seizes marijuana plants and the
equipment it finds.

And she disputed the memo's suggestion that property was smashed.

"There was never wanton destruction," she said. "It was always
carefully controlled dismantling of the grow. ... Nothing was ever
smashed."

In some cases, police have left the growing equipment as it is,
because they did not have enough room to store it all.

That poses its own problems, however, as growers have in some cases
gone back to recover their equipment days later.

The documents obtained by The Sun also refer to a brief pilot project
- -- from November 1999 to February 2000 -- during which police entered
suspected growing operations without a warrant.

They gained entry by going to the suspected growing operations with
members of the Vancouver fire department, who have the legal
authority to enter a premises when they believe there is a fire
hazard inside.

Upon gaining entry, police seized the marijuana plants while a city
inspector dismantled the equipment.

In a memo dated Dec 9, 1999 -- from which the names of both the
author and the recipient have been deleted -- an officer says members
of the department's soft drug squad are strongly opposed to the pilot
project.

"These are warrantless entries to dwelling houses being done
primarily to control criminal behaviour," the memo states. "The
Supreme Court has greatly restricted police powers with regards to
entries into dwelling houses, even when warrants have been obtained.
It is the opinion of all members of this unit that the courts would
take a very dim view of police actions should this project come to
light."

On Feb. 2, 2000, another memo indicates, the city received a legal
opinion that police had no authority to seize property without a
warrant and the pilot project was scrapped.

Harrison said she did not know how many growing operations were
entered without a warrant during the pilot project, but a memo dated
Dec. 14, 1999 states that -- up to that date -- seven warrantless
searches had been conducted by the police.

Documents obtained by The Sun also raise questions about safety and
the environment.

In a memo sent to deputy chief John Unger on August 23, another
officer whose name was deleted said he fears for the safety of
untrained patrol officers dismantling growing operations.

"Patrol members ... are not adhering to the ... policy whereby the
Narcotics Unit 2 [the unit in charge of soft drug investigations] is
to be called in to dismantle grows," the officer, identified only as
the intelligence coordinator for the drug squad, writes. "This is a
major safety issue. The possibility of our members encountering a
booby-trapped premises, and facing dangers from electrocution,
poisoning, and exposure to hazardous chemicals, explosive chemicals,
herbicides and pesticides is high. ... I realize that some of our
members are home electricians, but I don't think that we should wait
to find out what their skill level was in the hospital or morgue."

In an interview last week, Harrison said, to her knowledge, untrained
officers had never dismantled electrical equipment.

"It never happened," she said.

The memo's author also raised concerns about the environment.

"In Grow Busters cases the chemicals are ... in some cases being
dumped down the toilet," the memo states. "One of the main concerns
of this community is environmental and safety hazards posed by
marijuana productions. Ironically, by the improper disposal of
chemicals and equipment by our members, their actions are potentially
creating the same hazards that the citizens are fearing. One cannot
plead ignorance when there are trained personnel available to deal
with these situations."

Harrison said chemicals were dumped only once - in a rare situation
where some were inadvertently spilled. She said officers have been
told not to do it again.

"That was an unfortunate incident that happened once," she said.

On Thursday, The Sun published excerpts from e-mails and memos that
showed several senior drug investigators strongly opposed the
department's Grow Busters team.