VICTORIA POLICE CHIEF LOOKS FOR TOUGH ENFORCEMENT

Jamie Graham Presents Priorities After First Two Months On The Job

After two months on the job, Victoria police Chief Jamie Graham wants
to crack down on crime and homelessness in the downtown core, fix the
problem-plagued CREST radio system, and push for police-force
amalgamation, priorities he identified yesterday in an editorial
board meeting with the Times Colonist.

Graham wants tough enforcement on drug use and petty crime and will
consider deploying more officers in Victoria's problem areas.

"If you're smoking crack in front of an officer, you're going to be
charged with an offence."

Coming here from Vancouver, which has one of the worst homeless slums
in the country, Graham admitted he was surprised at the number of
homeless people in Victoria.

Graham said he's been talking to the principal of St. Andrew's
Elementary School, located at the corner of Vancouver Avenue and
Pandora Street.

Concerns have been raised about declining enrolment because parents
are fed up with sign of homelessness and remnants of drug use
littering the school grounds.

"If that school closes, McDonald's will close and Speedy Muffler will
close and it will be the beginning of a bad situation," he said of
the business community within the immediate area.

As Vancouver police chief, Graham headed a successful, but
short-lived operation in the crime-ridden Downtown Eastside which
flooded the area with officers for 40 days in an effort to make the
streets safer. If things in Victoria's troubled areas get worse,
Graham said he would consider similar tactics.

Fixing the glitches in the faulty CREST emergency response radio
system is also a top priority for the force, Graham said.

"Cops want two things: They want a radio and they want it to work."

Graham met with CREST representatives a week and a half ago and
requested a technical report that will identify the problems with the
radio network. He expects to get those findings by April.

The spotty reception has forced officers to work in pairs, but Graham
wants officers to go back to one-person patrol as soon as possible.

"From a public safety perspective, the radios have to be fixed," Graham said.

Graham also strongly supports amalgamating the region's police forces.

He hopes discussion around amalgamation will be sparked following the
provincial government's audit on the Victoria Police Department.

People from outlying communities flock to the city during the day to
work and at night to play and Victoria police are stuck with the cost, he said.

There would be benefits for smaller communities, Graham said, such as
administrative cost savings and access to police expertise that they
currently contract out.

Graham will also be lobbying to change the way in which criminals are
charged, as B.C. is one of the few provinces that has to get Crown
counsel approval for even minor offences.

It is a process he says is cumbersome and a waste of resources.