`WE ARE A NEIGHBOURHOOD UNDER SIEGE'

North-end Dartmouth residents ask police commission to help rid area of
crack addicts, hookers

North-end Dartmouth residents says they are fed up with prostitutes hanging
out on church doorsteps and crack addicts staggering out of at least eight
houses in the neighbourhood.

People from the area yesterday asked the Halifax Police Commission to help
take care of a problem they say has become worse since amalgamation.

"Many of our people feel that we are a neighbourhood under siege," said
District 9 Neighbourhood Watch spokesman Brian Crowley.

Deputy chief Frank Binns promised to meet with residents to discuss the
problem.

Crowley said the problem with prostitution and drugs got better after
residents last asked for help in June 1995. A police crackdown rounded up 30
johns and crime started to disappear from the largely residential area
between the harbour bridges.

After the metro merger in 1996, however, the police presence declined and
problems are worse than ever, he said. Now people are afraid to allow their
children out to play in an area where sex and crack are for sale at all
hours.

"There's a lunchtime trade, for God's sake," Crowley said.

The community has been trying to fight crime. Area resident Susan Jones said
she and a friend frequently stand at a nearby corner to scare off the
hookers who like to wait there and sometimes have sex in cars on the street.

At the corner, the two women often get harassed by men driving by, she said.

"I've been fighting it for six years and I am totally fed up," Jones said.
"But I am not going to move. I refuse."

Crowley said neighbourhood-watch members want police to put more emphasis on
fighting prostitution, particularly targeting the johns. That might require
more money from council and moving more of the police department's resources
into the area.

A new community police office appears to be more an exercise in public
relations than a crime-fighting measure, he said.

Residents are prepared to continue fighting crime in Dartmouth's north end,
Crowley said. Their efforts would probably be most effective as part of a
program co-ordinated with police, like those in Burnside, downtown
Dartmouth, and Sackville. Volunteers will need training, jackets, and cell
phones.

Crowley said the police commission should ask the province to help pay for
the cleanup with money confiscated from criminals.

Checked-by: Don Beck