TARGETED POLICING TO BE EXPANDED FOR NEXT SUMMER

Community Groups Complain It Interferes With Rights Of Poor

A controversial police program that critics call an excuse to harass
the poor will be back on Toronto streets next summer - for five extra
weeks.

The Toronto Police Services Board voted yesterday to expand the
Community Action Policing program from 11 to 16 weeks and spend an
extra $1 million on it.

It began as a pilot project this past July after several city
councillors complained there were not enough uniformed officers to
deal with drug dealers and petty criminals on their neighbourhood streets.

The force spent $1.9 million on the program; funding will be increased
to $2.9 million next year.

Within weeks, a coalition called The Committee to Stop Targeted
Policing was protesting the program.

Yesterday, board members were told the program led to a 13 per cent
reduction in reported crimes city-wide and a 20 per cent reduction in
the downtown core over the previous year.

Broken down by area, the report showed:

* A 30 per cent reduction in assaults in 52 Division, the core of the
city.

* A 24 per cent reduction in robberies in 55 Division, east of the Don
River.

* A 49 per cent reduction in break and enters in 11 Division, west of
Lansdowne.

* A 17 per cent reduction in auto thefts in 42 Division, in
Scarborough.

* A 40 per cent reduction in robberies in 23 Division, in north
Etobicoke.

``Let me tell you, it reduced crime considerably,'' Mayor Mel Lastman
told the meeting. ``It is a great program and you can't put a put
price on safety, particularly when kids are at school.''

But one by one yesterday, representatives of 11 community groups took
the podium in a bid to convince board members the police statistics
were incomplete and there was another side to the story.

Rick Zerr, an outreach worker for the homeless, said police were
interfering with the rights of the poor and homeless by demanding to
see identification, interrogating them and running checks on them
without cause.

Zerr said he was concerned that city council is being asked to put
more money into policing when it should be putting the money into
social services that would help these people.

Elske Kuiper of St. Christopher House, a drop-in agency for the
homeless in the city's west end, said that many in her community had
experienced ``harassment and intimidation,'' under the CAP program.

Kuiper said ``individuals who are poor, homeless, people of colour,
native community members and young people have been specifically targeted.''

Police board chair Norm Gardner later countered that if the homeless
were being targeted, ``there would be thousands and thousands of arrests.''

Councillor Olivia Chow was the only dissenter at yesterday's meeting.
Chow wanted the issue of funding deferred until the board addressed
some of the problems that had been pointed out.