DRUG CRACKDOWN PAYING OFF

Addition Of Extra Officer Allows RCMP To Focus Their Attention On Suspected
Dealers

Grande Prairie RCMP experienced a wealth of changes in 1999 and one of them
was the addition of a drug officer.

Insp. Jim Steele talked about the changes while delivering last year's
annual report to the city's protective services committee meeting Tuesday.

Created last July, the drug officer working under the General Investigation
Section was busy keeping tabs on dealers in town.

The report indicates that over a five-month stretch, several charges were
laid: 11 charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking marijuana,
four charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine, five
charges of marijuana possession, three charges of cocaine possession, seven
charges of marijuana production, and one charge of trafficking in cocaine.

"The (position) is looking at targeting the dealers and other people who
are bringing the drugs into Grande Prairie," Steele said after the meeting.

The traffic unit was also restructured in 1999 away from the traditional
schedule and toward two traffic teams.

"We feel this better suited the needs of the city allowing for more traffic
visibility," reports Cpl. Doug Milne. "We achieved this goal with more
checkstops, more school zone patrols, and more patrols throughout the city."

Changes were also evident in the police dog unit. Cpl. Doug Hawkes retired
"Lex" in April and "Kory" was then trained for six months. The German
shepherd started active duty Oct. 1.

The General Investigation Section noted personnel changes with the transfer
of two of its members to northern postings. It investigated and assisted in
more than 325 files ranging from attempted murder to extortion and other
serious offences.

The community policing unit continued to work on various crime prevention
initiatives and other projects.

The DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program made tremendous gains in
1999 according to the report. Additional funding was injected into the
program and four new city schools were added to the program.

"Last year, the focus was on our business plan priorities which the people
in the community told us were property offences and offences against
persons, and they're concerned about youth," Steele said. "And again this
year, we're going to focus on those issues as well."

He praised the Victims' Assistance Program, mainly staffed by volunteers
who devoted 2,746 hours of time in 1999.

Police vehicles were also beefed up with the installation of cell phones
and the detachment was also structurally reorganized to accommodate an
increase in manpower. Currently, there are 46 municipal positions and 15
provincial positions at the police station. A total of six vacancies have
yet to be filled.

Steele told the committee that he'll be presenting final criminal
statistics for 1999 at an upcoming meeting.

"Statistics are looking like they will turn out much the same as the 1988
statistics which were pretty good for us," Steele said. "It's showing a
downward trend in most of the criminal offences which is good news."