POLICE TO TARGET `HOT SPOTS' IN CRACKDOWN ON CITY CRIME

The $1.9 Million Program Aims To Give That Safe Feeling

Toronto police are to announce a $1.9 million program today aimed at
stepping up patrols in designated ``hot spots'' across the city in an
attempt to make residents feel safer.

``We'll be cracking (down) on prostitutes, squeegee kids, vandals,
drugs - things that are very obvious and annoying to the public at
large,'' Toronto police Chief David Boothby said in an interview last
night.

Uniformed officers will be offered overtime pay over the next 12 weeks
to patrol some 20 areas across the city where criminal activity is
believed to be high, Boothby said. Police will not reveal the
designated trouble spots, saying they don't want criminals to know
they're coming.

Toronto's 5,000 police officers now work out of 17 divisions. They are
paid an average of about $28 an hour. But they'll receive time and a
half pay - about $42 per hour - to work in targeted areas at the end
of their regular shifts or on days off.

Shifts in the areas will last between four and eight hours, and
officers are to devote themselves exclusively to patrolling the
trouble spot where they're assigned. While in a target area, police
won't respond to radio calls or 911 emergencies elsewhere in the city.

Councillor Norm Gardner (North York Centre), chair of the Toronto
Police Services Board, said the idea to implement the target police
initiative came out of Mayor Mel Lastman's Safe City task force, which
was struck six weeks ago.

``The idea is to never leave these hot spots unprotected,'' Gardner
said. ``Target areas of the city where the police and community say
there are problems and make a police presence known and felt.''

Current funding for target policing comes from a budget surplus in
Toronto council's former emergency and protective services committee,
now rolled into the Urban Development Committee.

While Boothby is pleased that funding came from Toronto council rather
than the police service budget, $522.9 million this fiscal year, he
said the $1.9 million will be used up quickly and is only expected to
last until the end of September.

He also said there are no guarantees the target policing initiative
will be repeated next summer.

``We're going to have to do an assessment on the results and see how
effective it is in the communities,'' Boothby said. ``But there are no
guarantees for future target police funding. We sure can't fund it out
of our budget.''

Gardner defended the three-month operation window, saying summer is
when target policing is needed most.

``The summer is when a lot of young people get criminally active
'cause the days are long and they have nothing to do,'' he said. ``As
well, a lot of officers end up working at civic events going on around
Toronto in the summer. Caribana, stuff like that. And those events
take (police) away from hot spots where they're needed.''

Long popular in the United States, target policing was tried in
Toronto in the summer of 1994 with a budget of $500,000. Known as
Project 35, the pilot project lasted for three months and sent
officers to 10 well-known trouble spots across the city - areas such
as Jane St. and Finch Ave. W.; Regent Park; and Parkdale.

Councillor Dennis Fotinos (Davenport) helped get Project 35 off the
ground and put forward a motion last year that proposed Toronto
council designate the $1.9 million surplus to target policing.

Fotinos said Project 35 had incredible results five years ago. In the
span of three months, police interviewed more than 1,000 people and
made close to 400 arrests.

``Target policing is the best way to use scarce municipal dollars,''
Fotinos said.

``Unless pressure is kept up on the criminal element in certain
neighbourhoods, you're not going to get a handle on the problems.''

Fotinos said the $1.9 million could have paid for the hiring, training
and salaries of about 15 new police officers. But he said rather than
hire more new officers and spend up to a year training them, it's
better to pay experienced officers the overtime to work in targeted
trouble spots.