100 more police, detox centre for city

In an allout assault on Vancouver's propertycrime problem and HIV
epidemic, a highprofile city coalition announced Thursday that up to 100
new police officers will be hired and an addiction treatment centre opened
to make the city safer.

Mayor Philip Owen announced that the city will invest up to $2 million for
land for a new facility in the drugplagued Downtown Eastside. The centre
which would be open by the year 2000 could include treatment
programs, detoxification beds, services for youths, and drug and alcohol
education.

Police Chief Bruce Chambers escalated the city's attack on crime with a
pledge to add between 75 and 100 new officers to the 1,100strong force by
the end of 1998. Hiring has already begun, he said, although he couldn't
say how many recruits are in training right now.

The initiatives come from the newly formed Vancouver Coalition for Crime
Prevention and Drug Treatment, launched at a press conference on the
Downtown Eastside.

The Vancouver Rotary Club, one of 20 coalition members, is looking for
partners to build a 282unit lowcost housing complex on West Hastings, and
the Vancouver school board announced it will pair up with police to educate
students about the dangers of drugs. Other members include the Vancouver
park board, the Vancouver Board of Trade, the University of B.C. and United
Way.

Earlier this month, the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS reported the
Downtown Eastside has the highest incidence of HIV infection in the
developed world, and federal statistics show up to 90 per cent of crimes in
Canada are related to drug or alcohol abuse.

David Levi, chair of the Vancouver/ Richmond health board, said he is
pleased a coalition of public and private groups is responding to the HIV
epidemic. "We won't solve the problem by locking up drug addicts, we will
solve it by treating them,'' said Levi.

Dr. David Patrick, associate director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS, also applauded the idea of a residential treatment facility that
will address the root cause of the epidemic poverty and fill the gap
left by the closure of the Pender detoxification centre two years ago.

Chambers assured the public that the police budget, which is approximately
$100 million a year, will not be increased. Instead, he plans to pay for
the salaries of the new officers by finding efficiencies within the
department and reducing the number of officers in senior management ranks.
He would not say if this "flattening out of the department'' would happen
through earlyretirement incentives for veteran officers.

But Matt Kelly, president of the Vancouver Police Association, said he'd
been assured that voluntary earlyretirement packages would be offered. "I
was told the funding for the new officers would come from this and would
not affect our police officers,'' said Kelly. "The new officers are needed
because of the increase in population and the increase in call levels.''

For its part of the deal, the city is promising up to $2 million for land
that would be leased to an agency running the proposed new centre for
addicts. What type of facility it will be and where it will be located is
still being debated, and the province won't be asked for financial support
until there is a plan in place.

Owen denied the city's drug problem has ballooned into something that is
now too big to fix. "What are you supposed to do? Drop your hands and say
it's a huge serious problem, decaying the quality of life, sucking illegal
money out of the community, and ruining lives and we're going to sit by
and watch that continue? Absolutely unacceptable," he said.

The Rotary Club of Vancouver is also looking for partners to build a
lowincome residence at the site of the former Golden Crown Restaurant at
122132 West Hastings. The residence would provide safe and affordable
housing to people at risk, with a monthly rental rate of about $325, said
representative Stephen Panzer.

"The project site in question is situated in an area of substantial urban
blight and is characterized by a high degree of poverty, crime . . .
homelessness, and drug abuse," he said.

Panzer did not know when the proposed project could be finished, but said
it would cost about $9.5 million.

And the joint school boardpolice drug awareness program will see officers
talking to students in Grades 5 to 9, said board chair John Cheng. "We
believe such programs will raise the awareness and understanding of drug
and substance abuse in the community and a way that . . . such abuse can be
prevented," he said.