EAST SIDE PRIDE CELEBRATES A DECADE OF CRIME FIGHTING

In the past 10 years a grass-roots group aimed at curbing crime on
Chatham's east side has taken back the streets and helped revitalize
the neighbourhood.

East Side Pride is celebrating its crime-fighting accomplishments over
the past decade with a free event today at the W. I. S. H. Centre and
Taylor Park.

"Ten years ago we said 'That's it, we can't live like this any more,'
" recalled ESP founder and Chatham Coun. Marjorie Crew.

She said the 1999 murder of Paul Flint, whose body was discovered in
McGregor's Creek north of King Street East, was the last straw for a
small group of concerned citizens.

They banded together and started ESP.

Crew said Flint's death and the subsequent silence of residents was
alarming.

It made her mad and it made her take a hard look at her neighbourhood
and the activity that was taking place to create an atmosphere of fear
strong enough to keep people quiet about a murder. "People wouldn't
speak up -- they were too afraid of retaliation," she said.

The fear was everywhere. People were afraid to walk the streets,
afraid to say anything about what was going on and afraid to call the
police, she said.

It was a neighbourhood on the brink.

Drug dealers freely peddled their poison on the streets, prostitutes
roamed the area and there were more than 60 drug houses.

"It was a scary place," she said. Rather than try and move out of
the area, which many people did, Crew decided to fight for the
neighbourhood.

"It irked me that people made the community think we (east side
residents) were lawless and worthless," she said. "All that negative
activity was becoming the perception of who we were."

ESP members realized that in order to reclaim the neighbourhood, they
had to take responsibility for it and its problems.

After plenty of growing pains, many incidents of intimidation and
resistance from the community, ESP started to gain momentum.

Neighbours started getting involved in their own safety and ESP
developed an important relationship with the Chatham- Kent Police Service.

Const. David Bakker, who Crew credits with helping get ESP on its feet
and out in the community, said the group has made a tangible and
lasting impact on the east side.

He said calls to the area for drug and violent crime are down
considerably. He said a neighbourhood where residents were once scared
to leave their homes has transformed into a vibrant area with a true
sense of community.

"It was like a barren wasteland down there, no one walked on the
streets. The people in the area had given up," he said. "Now when you
go down there, people are out in the streets. It's like a
neighbourhood should be."

Gone are the drug houses on every block, the prostitutes selling their
bodies and the fear that silenced residents for years.

"They've changed that whole side of the community for the better,"
Bakker said of ESP.

Crew said ESP is best known for its community patrol program, which
involves members hitting the streets to stroll the area in search of
criminal activity and crime prevention opportunities.

"It has been our most effective tool in reducing crime and increasing
visibility in the community," she said. "However, we need to move
toward a prevention phase with more of the neighbourhood becoming involved."

Crew is hoping to develop a traditional neighbourhood watch program in
the area.

"This will prevent crime and will provide sustainability for ESP into
the future," she said, adding the community patrol program would
continue and the neighbourhood watch would be its own program of ESP.

People interested in signing up for neighbourhood watch can do so at
today's event or call Crew at 519-351-1269.

In looking to the future, Crew said the group will continue to
fundraise and reach out to the community. The money the group raises
- -- through donations, golf tournaments, bingos and grants -- is used
to support programs for local youth, crime prevention, community
cleanups and summer swimming sponsorship.

Here's a look at some of the changes the east side has undergone since
ESP's inception.

DRUG HOUSES

Crew said when ESP first started there were drug houses -- where
illicit substances were sold and people went to get high -- on every
block.

"I stopped counting drug houses at 60," she said.

Today, she believes there are only a handful of houses in the area
that people sell drugs out of.

Members of ESP stroll through the neigbourhood and record suspicious
activity. Members still hit the streets every week.

When the group targets a drug house, ESP will often sit outside the
home for hours, making detailed notes of the comings and goings.

Whatever information ESP gathers is promptly turned over to police.

She said a 2005 police sting, called Operation ATAC (All Together
Against Crack), made a huge dent in drug activity in the area.

Things have continuously gotten better.

Crew recalled a time when kids were finding crack cocaine on the
sidewalks and her teenaged daughter once found a hypodermic needle.

The group has helped educate landlords about what's going on at their
properties and encouraged them to make positive changes.

In a walk around the neighbourhood, Crew pointed to former crack
houses that have been transformed into family homes.

Debbe Behnke has lived on Prince Street for 25 years. Before ESP was
formed, she was almost surrounded by drug houses.

After one of the homes was raided, the tires on her vehicles were
slashed so she invited ESP to spend time in her yard, documenting the
drug activity.

"It's progressively gotten better since East Side Pride started,"
Behnke said.

"I like my neighbours, I can finally say that."

PROSTITUTION

In the not-to-distant past women couldn't walk down the streets on the
east side without being "cruised on" by Johns looking for prostitutes,
Crew said.

ESP has 11 pages of licence plates of suspected Johns who were spotted
circling the neighbourhood. As part of the group's campaign to stop
the prostitution problem on the east side, members collected licence
plate numbers and took photographs of people and vehicles believed to
be cruising for sex.

Crew said ESP's vigilance, numerous undercover police stings and media
attention have helped drive the Johns and the hookers out of that area.

"We don't see the girls anymore, they are all gone," she said.

The group followed many accused Johns through the court process,
sometimes even submitting victim-impact statements about
prostitution's impact on the area.

Lobbying the courts also helped ensure some of the offenders were
banned from the area as part of their probation orders.

PROPERTY STANDARDS

ESP has literally cleaned up the streets -- not just of drugs and
criminal activity.

Over the years, Crew said members of ESP have documented dimly lit
areas, decaying sidewalks and roads and houses violating property standards.

Through repeated reports to the municipality, there is now improved
lighting on the east side and sidewalks continue to be fixed. The
group still reports homes with poor property standards.

As she walks around the neighbourhood, Crew proudly points out homes
that have been renovated and invested in. She said reputable landlords
are taking notice of the area's opportunities and helping revitalize
it.

ATTITUDE

Crew said the biggest improvement in her neighbourhood in the last 10
years is the attitude of its residents.

People no longer tolerate crime. The code of silence has been broken.

Crew said ESP and police often get calls from residents reporting
illegal activity.

"Trust had to be built between police and the community," she said,
adding that relationship is constantly being worked on.

Crew is quick to point out that ESP can't take credit for all of the
strides made in the neighbourhood.

She said residents' commitment to making the east side a better place
has helped make the neighbourhood a strong and thriving community.