POLICE UNDERSTAFFED AS CASELOAD BALLOONS

City Coun. Sushil Thapar Blames Drugs For City'S Crime Problem

Const. Arthur Forsyth stepped out into the inky dark from his police
car Sunday evening while responding to a call at a Bettcher Street
residence.

It was just one in many calls the officer received that night.

After dealing with the call, Forsyth walked over to a group of
grumbling citizens.

The officer listened to what one woman had to say on Quesnel's drug
houses.

"There's a drug house just down the street," the woman told him.

The officer knew the house. In fact, he even knew the drug dealer by
name, but explained RCMP are "confined by the law" to produce
irrefutable proof of drug trafficking before they can shut down such
an operation.

He added there were only about four police officers on duty that night
for the entire city.

Quesnel RCMP Staff Sgt. Keith Hildebrand said Quesnel, like many other
small B.C. cities, is understaffed.

The 2005 Municipal Case Burden Report, measuring the number of
criminal offenses for every police officer in any given community,
states for every officer in Quesnel there are 124 offences.

The report gives a picture of officer's workload in a year.

While a case burden of 124 is on the high-end, it's nowhere near the worst.

Smithers tops the list at 184, William's Lake sits at 130 and Prince
George clocks in at 114.

"Officers taking calls actually have more like 200 a year," Hildebrand said.

"We have hot and cold days. Days where not much happens and days where
all the wheels fall off the cart."

Hildebrand explained their highest call volume happens Wednesday
through Friday.

Councillor and Community Safety Committee Chair Sushil Thapar said
it's not that Quesnel doesn't have enough police officers, but that
the province isn't doing enough to put an end to crime.

"We're at the standard for our population size," Thapar said.

"The RCMP bust people, but then the justice system lets them back out
on the streets."

Thapar said B.C.'s biggest crime problem is drugs, adding that's where
the majority of calls to RCMP are coming from, "drugs drive the break
ins in this city."

Thapar does admit B.C. is way behind other provinces when it comes to
policing levels.

"Other provinces like Alberta have 400-500 officers for every 100,000
people. B.C. has 180 for every 100,000 people," he said.

"More police officers does make a difference. Just look at how adding
four officers for impaired driving worked. We used to be the highest
in B.C. for drinking and driving. Now we only have one or two a year."

Thapar said bigger cities such as Surrey and Burnaby are driving drug
operations into smaller communities.

"Cocaine is a problem here but so is marijuana. The drug trade is a
$20 billion dollar industry," he said.

"That's bigger than forestry."

While Quesnel is no different than places such as Williams Lake and
Prince George, Thapar wants a provincial strategy where drug busting
efforts are integrated better.

"In the last 10 years it's become worse," Thapar said.