UNDERCOVER ON THE CITY'S MEAN STREETS

Drug Officers Risk Their Lives For As Little As $40

In the city's north end, an undercover officer fights desperately with a
drug dealer, using him as a human shield as the dealer's cohort points a
loaded sawed-off shotgun at the veteran detective.

The attempted drug rip-off earlier this year could have ended tragically,
but the officer's back-up team was close by and moved in to make arrests.

On another day, this time in Scarborough, another undercover officer posing
as a crack addict is led down a gloomy hallway to buy drugs. As she haggles
with the young dealer, another suddenly shows up.

Without warning, one of them grabs the officer's wrist and twists it hard,
but she won't give up the $40 she has crumpled in her hand.

The flash of a blade changes her mind.

Startled, she lets go of the cash and the two hoods run off. Instinct kicks
in and she chases them, even though she doesn't have a gun. The two are
later caught by her back-up team, which comes to her aid.

The drug officer has been on the force for 13 years, but her recent brush
with the knife-wielding dealer has left her questioning whether she should
be risking her life just to take low-level drug players off the street for a
while.

"At the time, you're thinking: `I'm not going to let these little bastards
get away with my money,' even though it's not yours. Later though, you
think, was it worth the risk? . . . Not really," said the officer, whose
supervisor allowed her to speak to The Star on condition she not be identified.

It isn't the first time she has had a run-in with a dealer in the course of
her duties. Last year, she was punched in the face and pushed down a set of
stairs during a drug buy.

Asked why she continues to do a job that other officers on the Toronto force
would never do, she said simply: "Someone has to do it.

"We're a bunch of dedicated guys. We just want to catch the bad guys."

While there has been much talk lately about the drop in the city's over-all
crime rate, the undercover officers working the drug scene have found the
trade has not let up and that there has been a surge in
violent run-ins.

"Today, the risk of harm has increased significantly," says Detective
Sergeant Keith Kindy, in charge of the area field command drug squad in the
city's east end.

Robberies of undercover offi cers working the streets of Toronto were
virtually unheard of until a few years ago, Kindy says. He calls the recent
spate of drug rip-offs alarming and says his officers are not the only ones
feeling the heat.

During a drug operation in March, an undercover OPP drug squad officer had a
gun stuck into his ribs and three men robbed him of more than $40,000. His
back-up team managed to catch one man.

Kindy says he knows of several other incidents across the city in the past
year in which undercover officers have found themselves victims of drug
robberies.

He mentions the case of Detective Constable Russ Lillie, who was shot twice
in March, 1998, while trying to make a drug arrest in the Albion Rd. and
Kipling Ave. area.

"I don't envy the job they have to do," the 30-year veteran said. "There are
so many dealers and never enough time."

Another of Kindy's undercover officers, who was the victim of a violent
robbery at the hands of a drug dealer, says his job is becoming more
dangerous, but he remains convinced that what he does is absolutely necessary.

"Drugs are so prevalent in our society. The math tells you we will never rid
the streets of drugs . . . I know that," said the 28-year-old officer, who
has been on the job eight years. "But somebody has to risk their lives to
keep a lid on things. That way, people can feel safe in their neighbourhoods."

In his 2 1/2 years working undercover, the young officer says he has
conducted more than 150 drug buys, almost all without incident.

But last June, he was almost killed.

During an undercover operation in Parma Court, a Scarborough housing project
that has had its share of problems with drug pushers over the years, the
officer hooked up with a couple of dealers.

The housing complex is the same place where Clinton Gayle, convicted of
first-degree murder in the 1994 slaying of Toronto Constable Todd Baylis,
fired on police back in 1989.

Ten years later, police still face danger as they try to rid the Victoria
Park and O'Connor Dr.-area housing project of drug dealers.

On a June day last year, the young undercover officer was looking to buy
some crack cocaine.

Two young dealers took him to a nearby building where they demanded to look
under his shirt to see if he was wearing a wire. They also asked him if he
was a cop.

It's part of the routine the officer is used to when dealing with drug peddlers.

The formalities over, one of the dealers ducked into the building. The
officer had given him $50. The other dealer let him hold his cell phone as
collateral.

"Everything was going well. I was talking to the one guy as if we were
long-lost buddies," the officer said.

Then the dealer made a quick exit into the apartment building after being
summoned inside by the first dealer.

Moments later, the young man returned, but his demeanour had changed
dramatically. He was obviously angry.

"He started yelling at me: "You're a f---ing cop!" the officer recalled.

Before he could react, his assailant pulled a 25-centimetre hunting knife
out from under his clothes and pushed it against the young constable.

"It was right up against me. I could feel the blade against my stomach," the
officer said.

The undercover officer started to back away, but the dealer matched him step
for step, always keeping the knife pressed against him.

"I thought right there I was dead," he said. "The guy was screaming `I'm
going to f---ing kill you. I'm going to slice you.'"

The officer couldn't reach for his gun - he didn't have one. Although his
back-up team was close by, everything was happening too fast and they likely
wouldn't get to him in time.

The officer said he kept talking to try to calm his attacker. The dealer
suddenly withdrew the knife and bolted for the nearby door leading to the
apartment.

He was later arrested with an informant's help.

"I definitely felt relief afterward, but I was also angry," the officer
said. Despite his brush with death, he continues to do his job.

"Every time I go up to someone to buy drugs, I have a strange feeling in my
stomach. I don't think that's ever going to go away," he said.

The threat posed by drug dealers who would rather rob a buyer than make a
deal isn't the only problem facing officers working undercover these days.

Kindy says officers have to contend with street-level dealers who are
becoming more sophisticated when it comes to their own security.

Just last month, police found the tables turned on them when they went to a
North York apartment to arrest a dealer and found they were being watched as
they approached their target.

The dealer had hooked up a surveillance device in the stairwell and had also
installed listening devices, which neutralized the element of surprise
police rely on to ensure their own safety.

The police did manage to seize five pounds of marijuana with a $40,000
street value during the operation, as well as handgun ammunition.

Kindy says each time his officers go out on an operation they expect dealers
to be armed. In fact, he says, his own unit seizes one loaded handgun a
month in drug busts.

"From my perspective, that's an alarming statistic," Kindy said, adding that
just recently they seized illegal hollow-point bullets during a drug raid.