DEALING WITH CRIME IN WHALLEY

I have recently been reading the local headlines regarding the crime
statistics in the Lower Mainland. According to these statistics crime
has dropped over the last year.

Here in Surrey, although crime is reported to be decreasing, we still
are dealing with more crime than most.

With regards to the decrease, I feel I must comment that I don't see
that to be the case in my own neighbourhood and surrounding Whalley.
The majority of people who live around this area feel there has been
no improvement at all, and many feel the area has seen an increase in
street and drug crime.

Most crime that occurs in my neighbourhood is not reported to the
police, because the regular drug dealing, petty thieving and prowling
doesn't seem to be taken seriously enough to make a call to an
overworked police force. I work in the most troubled part of Whalley,
and the law-abiding, working people in this area don't see real
positive change.

From my storefront I regularly see people buying and openly using
drugs. There is also the ever-present aggressive panhandlers
approaching people at their car doors, and garbage-filled shopping
carts left all around.

Theft prevention can at times take up a good part of my working day
and even then theft occurs regularly in my workplace as well as the
surrounding businesses. These crimes also go unreported.

I walk through my neighbourhood and I see all the development, and I
wonder what our new residents are going to think about prostitution
and drug crime around them.

I think if we want to look forward to a bright future in downtown
Surrey we all had better start taking problems of addiction and
homelessness more seriously. Waiting for development to make the
problem go away is not the answer, and not the likely outcome.

I think people are becoming tired of all the talk about what needs to
be done. We want to see positive results and more proactive policies.

W. Blundell