CRIME BLITZ IS A SHORT-TERM SOLUTION

A police officer pounding the pavement or cycling through a city park
is a welcome sight for residents and a deterrent for would-be
criminals. Unfortunately, it's a sight we don't see enough in parts of
Toronto. Too often, walking the beat takes a back seat to emergency
calls or court appearances.

Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman is hoping to change that, at least
temporarily, with a $1.8 million plan to boost policing in problem
areas.

For 11 weeks, officers will be brought in on overtime to patrol
trouble spots on foot, bicycles and in cruisers.

The crackdown will target drug trafficking, prostitution, youth gangs
and other disorderly behaviour in 19 ``hot spots'' around Toronto.

Just as important, the mayor is hoping the increased police presence
will reassure many residents their communities are safe.

It would be a mistake for police to focus on chasing squeegee kids off
street corners, as Chief David Boothby vowed on Monday. Squeegee kids
may be annoying but they're hardly dangerous. It's drug dealers and
gangs who make the streets unsafe.

In announcing details of the program yesterday, Lastman took pains to
highlight the city's enviable record on crime; reported criminal code
offences dropped 8.5 per cent last year, the biggest decrease in five
years.

``Despite our hard-earned safety record, there are areas of our city
where crime is still a problem,'' Lastman said. ``Every citizen in our
city deserves the right to safe streets and parks.''

He is right. When residents stay inside out of fear or frustration,
everybody loses.

Nothing beats the sight of a police officer to scare away the punks.
There's little question the officers dedicated to policing these
neighbourhoods will make a difference.

But attacking crime - and people's perceptions of it - in the long
term requires more than putting cops on the street. It requires an
investment in neighbourhoods to make the parks and streets a place for
residents to enjoy, not shun. That means building playgrounds and
establishing recreational programs for youth in the local community
centre, the things that make up a true neighbourhood.

The mayor's initiative does some of this. It promises improvements to
city parks, such as new lighting and the pruning of vegetation to
improve sightlines and remove blind spots.

But the city should go farther by implementing the practical,
inexpensive recommendations contained in the February report of its
own task force on community safety.

That report urged a crackdown on problem properties such as drug
houses, increased spending on crime prevention and audits of
neighbourhoods to identify unsafe areas.

This, too, is important. These are the permanent changes that will
help make the city safer. After all, the cops can't be on every street
corner.