PROGRAM CRACKING DOWN ON CRACK HOUSES

Nova Scotia's Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act is shutting
down crack houses around the province.

"I think it's been very useful," said Pat Lawrence, director of the
Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority.

"It's given residents within the communities the ability to
anonymously (come forward) if they have concerns about a neighbour."

Earlier this month, the Justice Department's public safety
investigation section announced it had completed 500 investigations
and issued more than 100 evictions under the act.

Its most recent, court-imposed, community safety order was at 2441
Creighton St., a townhouse in Halifax run by the housing authority.

"Nine shots were fired at people standing outside of that residence,
who were involved in drug trafficking and several of those shots
actually hit the surrounding townhouses," said Roger Merrick,
director of public safety investigations.

"So there's a huge safety issue for other residences. And it doesn't
really matter where it is. . . . Everyone has a right to expect
safety in their neighbourhood."

In another case, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court issued a decision
which enforced a public safety order at a public housing unit in Spryfield.

In that case, Lisa Lawrence (no relation to Pat Lawrence) and her
family were forced to vacate their home at 134 Lavender Walk last
June after a judge declared Lisa Lawrence's lease with the housing
authority terminated.

The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act targets residential or
commercial properties that are regularly used for the illegal
activities such as trafficking drugs, bootlegging, prostitution and
illegal gambling.

The act also protects the identities of complainants, although Pat
Lawrence freely admits the housing authority has co-operated with
the public safety investigation section in the past.

"We have worked with the public safety officer, absolutely," she said.

In the case at 134 Lavender Walk, the decision spells out that Lisa
Lawrence's family were well known drug dealers in the Greystone
community. Her sons, Brandon and Marcel, and their friends identify
themselves as the Greystone Gang, the decision states.

Two police officers testified at the hearing that there was steady
stream of people in and out of the Lawrences' home day and night. A
public safety investigator videoed at least one drug deal at the
property, the judge wrote.

In January 2005, the Lawrence's home was shot at twice and later vandalized.

Lisa Lawrence testified at the hearing that she regularly buys
marijuana illegally for medicinal reasons - smoking upwards of 15
grams per week. She said her sons smoke weed too and are respected
community members. She also denied that anyone in her home sold the stuff.

However, Justice Richard Coughlan ruled that the neighbourhood was
being adversely affected by the activities at the home and ordered
the family out.

In total, the public safety office has taken six cases to court.
Five resulted in the court issuing a public safety order, Mr. Merrick said.

The five include the Creighton Street and Lavender Walk townhouses,
as well as a mobile home at 14 Douglas Ave. in Berwick, and two Cape
Breton homes - 70 Grandview St. in Sydney and 19 MacNamara St. in
Sydney Mines.

The sixth case, involved the Gentlemen's Massage Parlour, which used
to operate on Windmill Road in Dartmouth. In that case, Mr. Merrick
said the owner-operator decided to sell the property before
the case wrapped up.

The Justice Department won't release the 101 addresses where their
public safety investigators found evidence of criminal activity, but
the residents agreed to move without fighting the warning-to-vacate
notice they were issued.

The office has five investigators, all former cops with extensive
investigative experience and at any one time there are about 40 to
50 ongoing investigations.

Mr. Merrick says his section has been able to solve some long-term
community troubles that police haven't been able to crack.

Criminal charges are laid against individuals and once criminal
cases are resolved, individuals often return to their homes and to
the criminal activity, he said

"In our case, we try to find a remedy to the property itself and we
do that by actually closing the property," he said.

The act has given neighbourhoods the ability to speak out against
criminal activity which has held them captive, he said.

"Nowhere during the case, even when it goes to court, is the
complainant's name released. That allows for people to give us
information without fear of reprisal."