POLICE PLAN CRACKDOWN ON DRUG-RELATED CRIME

Drugs were on the table when the Belleville Police Service met the
public Monday at the Belleville Library.

The session was to get public opinion on the police business plan that
will be completed in January and guide the department for the next
three years.

But the plan is not so much about dollars as it is a comprehensive
layout of where police will concentrate their efforts to reduce crime.

Police Chief Steve Tanner said most people want traffic enforcement -
or at least they say they do until they get a ticket.

"Do something about the speeding on Front Street," is a typical
complaint, Tanner said.

But drugs is a bigger problem - it is the culprit behind many break
and enters and robberies.

Project Longarm - a drug enforcement team composed of several police
forces including Belleville - seized almost $50 million in drugs in
2006, made 226 arrests and laid 832 charges, Tanner said.

There were 461 break-ins and 44 robberies, and Tanner said many of
those criminal acts were committed by those addicted to crack cocaine,
either to buy more or to pay off dealers.

Why else would a person use a knife to rob a corner store, netting
maybe $50, and risk five to 10 years in jail, he asked. The drug
crackdown has been a major factor in cutting break-ins to 461 from 653
in 2005, Tanner said.

One woman told of crack dealers making deals outside her business and
wondered what police could do to stop it.

Tanner said store owners can ask police to install technological
devices such as surveillance cameras to catch the culprits. Also,
there are other ways to watch drug transactions since a uniformed
officer on the street just makes the perpetrators move to another location.