CITY PARKING LOTS HOPE TO TARGET DRUG DEALERS WITH THE MOSQUITO

Drug dealers and loiterers: Buzz off.

That's what parking operator EasyPark hopes will happen once it gets
the green light to install an ultrasonic device -- dubbed The Mosquito
- -- at some city-owned parking lots in downtown Vancouver.

"There's a couple of sites where we're challenged with lots of people
hanging around in the parkade and stairwells," said EasyPark general
manager Mel McKinney. "It's the drug activity and the rowdies when the
nightclubs get out. That's really the target of this."

The square-shaped device emits a low-volume, high-pitched hum that is
audible within a 20-metre range to people 25 years old or younger.

People older than 25 are usually oblivious to the annoying sound
because of natural age-related hearing loss.

It has been tested, with great success, at a multi-level downtown
parkade plagued by drug activity, said McKinney, as well as at some
convenience stores, schools and businesses in Metro Vancouver.

In a report to Vancouver city council yesterday, EasyPark proposed to
allocate $147,000 for the devices as part of its 2009 capital budget.
Council, which must approve the capital budget for its parking lots,
deferred the matter until tomorrow. Each Mosquito costs about $1,000,
plus accessories and installation, said McKinney, and can be
programmed to operate at peak trouble times such as Friday and
Saturday from 2 to 4 a.m.

Despite the wording in the report for a "noisemaker to deter vagrants
from congregating in stairwells," the devices aren't targeted at the
homeless, said McKinney. He said any problems with the homeless
bunking down in alcoves or stairwells are handled by site security.