FANTINO TAKES MESSAGE TO THE STREETS

More front-line officers needed, chief tells groups

More police officers are needed to patrol the streets and greater effort
should be put into tackling problems caused by drugs, says Toronto police
Chief Julian Fantino.

He spoke out on these and other issues during various events last week
designed to give the public an overview of policing in the city.

Fantino, who became Toronto's police chief on March 6, told a breakfast
meeting of the Yonge-Bloor-Bay Association and the Bloor-Yorkville Business
Improvement Association that he'll be putting more front-line officers on
the street.

And during a walk through the Spadina Ave. Chinatown district, he told
local business owners that the Toronto Police Service will increase the
number of visible-minority officers.

People in Chinatown and at the business meeting said they'd like to see
police out of their cars and walking the streets.

Fantino said cutbacks, a hiring freeze and additional demands on the police
force through the years had taken officers from front-line positions.

"We need to get our people back on the streets, . . . it's that simple," he
said. "That's what we are trying to do."

Fantino acknowledged the Toronto Police Service is having "a heck of a
time" getting recruits to replenish the organization, which lost a wealth
of experience recently through retirements.

"We're hoping to get into high gear with hiring," he said, stressing it
takes considerable time to train new officers.

Fantino said there's also a need for new police buildings, including
stations in Etobicoke and Toronto's east end, to replace facilities that
have fallen into disrepair through the years.

He also said a helicopter pilot project will begin this summer that will
provide what he described as critical support for ground-level operations.

Fantino said helicopters are not toys but a tremendous enhancement for
public and officer safety.

"We cannot be left behind," he said. "Police departments all over the U.S.
and Canada are using helicopters very effectively as a support."

Meanwhile, guests attending a lunch at the Empire Club were told by Fantino
that police know from experience that 50 to 70 per cent of all local
property crimes, such as break-ins and robberies, have a direct link to the
drug subculture.

Twelve years ago, Fantino said, Canadian police knew very little about
crack cocaine.

"We had very little awareness of the havoc it was beginning to generate in
some neighbourhoods of major American cities," he said.

"Until we began to see it surface in Canada, we did not even know what it
was, how it was made, the depth and organization of distribution, and had
little experience about the degree of violence it generated," the chief said.

"Whole communities have become crack-cocaine battlefields where the dealers
are ruthless, well-armed, highly organized, and their victims have become
the children in those communities."

Fantino said in the United States and, to a lesser degree, Canada, an
entire generation of inner-city children has grown up thinking guns, drugs
and violence are all there is to life.

Although crime statistics are down, the public should not become complacent
but should work with police to solve problems and maintain a safe
community, he said.

"Regardless of crime statistics, my concerns have been and will continue to
be validated by the stunning incidents of gunfire, murder and havoc that I
personally witnessed in this very community (recently)," Fantino said.

"To believe that any community will forever remain relatively free of
drugs, violence, youth gangs, organized crime and a deteriorating quality
of life, in my respectful view, is simply naive."

Fantino said he doesn't want to be seen as an alarmist, but it's essential
to develop community policing programs to provide the quality and quantity
of service that the public demands.

Community policing initiatives developed in co-operation with members of
the public do work, although they can be expensive and are not an easy fix
for crime and disorder, he said.

"At the outset, at least, community policing initiatives are very
labour-intensive," Fantino said.

"Long term, however, the accomplishments derived are absolutely outstanding."