MORE KUDOS FOR DRUG HOUSE PROGRAM

Do you really know your neighbours, your children's friends, or your
coworkers? At a base level, many of us claim we know our neighbours.

We want our residential areas to be safe, secure for our young
children, for our seniors, and for ourselves. Do you wonder why
excessive traffic happens at odd hours of the day to and from your
neighbour's home?

Is there a house in your neighbourhood where the residents apparently
don't have what we deem regular employment, yet they live lavishly?

Tips for citizens

These are only two of the tips citizens can use to report suspected
drug activity to the Report a Drug House free and confidential
telephone line. If we are caring citizens who want to seek an end to
the drug trade in our community we need to continue to take action.

780-310-2677 (310-COPS) is a free phone line for citizens to report
suspicious people and activity in our neighbourhoods.

Although the RCMP encourages us to leave our name, phone number, and
the activity we are reporting in our neighbourhood (with a description
of the house and location of your neighbourhood), tips can be left
anonymously.

The telephone line is checked daily in Wetaskiwin and in
Hobbema.

The RCMP will investigate all activity or homes reported on the phone
line. Truly this is a valuable service that has been very successful
in Edmonton and other Albertan communities.

Report a Drug House has been operating successfully in the Wetaskiwin
and Hobbema RCMP detachments service area since January 2007. This
program was developed as a result of citizen concern regarding safety
in neighbourhoods. It became apparent that our neighbourhoods needed
help. To better understand this, it is important to understand what
defines a "drug house" according to this program and why these
addresses are so difficult to deal with for many police agencies.

Community help required

Rather then the Police or RCMP trying to deal with the problem by
themselves, we encourage the community to give us information of the
drug addicts and dealers visiting the address.

We then facilitate a relationship with all the other agencies and
become a part of the puzzle with all the pieces present, without any
holes, to form a complete picture and then to solve the problem. This
is very cost effective and delivers true and immediate results to the
community in removing the source of the problem: bad neighbours.

This program works well and can work anywhere. In Edmonton, EPS is
having success with over 500 drug houses shut down in two and a half
years.

The forward thinking communities of Wetaskiwin and Grande Prairie saw
the value of such a program and are also working this format in a way
that fits their community. EPS members have also learned from the
people of Wetaskiwin and Grande Prairie and in sharing problems that
we have encountered we can find solutions to the intricacies of each
individual problem house.

True partnerships, where all the people involved share information and
ideas to solve a problem in a community, is our end goal.