SPEEDING FINES TO PAY FOR DRUG WAR

Clean Sweep So Successful It's Expanding Across Winnipeg

MANITOBA'S leadfoots will help pay to fight drug dealers and gang
members under a permanent, city-wide version of Operation Clean Sweep.
By the end of the month the province will increase speeding fines by
as much as $60 and raise the Justice Services surcharge to $40 from
$35 for all provincial offences, municipal bylaws and federal tickets.

The stiffest increase, for doing 16 to 19 km/h over the limit, is to
$195 from $135, a 44 per cent increase.

The change was announced yesterday by Justice Minister Gord
Mackintosh, Mayor Sam Katz and Police Chief Jack Ewatski.

That new revenue, expected to be $2.1 million per year, will pay to
put police into any "hot zone" in the city where criminals think they
have the upper hand.

"We are coming for you," Ewatski said. "We will continue to come for
you."

Katz said the aim of the full-time unit is to make sure Winnipeggers
feel just as safe walking down Portage Avenue as they do sitting in
their backyards. "We're giving our police officers the tools they need
to be proactive, not reactive," he said.

"We don't want to just move a problem around," Mackintosh added. "We
want to move it out."

Operation Clean Sweep started as a special task force set up following
the Thanksgiving slaying of Philipe Haiart on Sargent Avenue. Haiart,
17, was an innocent bystander killed in a gang-related shooting.

The focus of the 45-officer project -- dubbed "in-your-face" policing
- -- was to uproot visible street crime (drug dealing, gang violence,
prostitution and property crime) in the West End.

What makes Clean Sweep different from other front-line patrol units is
that its officers aren't "dispatchable," meaning they aren't beholden
to the police radio and jumping from call to call, but free to make
arrests on their own.

Ewatski said to date more than 700 people have been arrested, some
more than once. Officers have also seized 43 weapons.

"You go drive down Ellice Avenue at 7 p.m. tonight and you'll see
people out shopping and enjoying their neighbourhood," Clean Sweep
Const. Peter O'Kane said.

"You won't see the ruffians and toughs you used to see. "We made
misery for them. If you ask me that's what community-based policing is
all about."

One detail that was missing yesterday is how an expanded Clean Sweep
will work for the entire city.

Insp. Boyd Campbell said the new unit is still being set up, but
deployment of officers will likely be based on two things: Field
intelligence gathered by police and internal computer analysis of
crime trends.

Campbell said ideally police will go into areas or "hot zones" before
the public starts complaining.

"We are not going to drop anything that's been successful," he said.
"We're going to build on the lessons of the past five months."

At least one group, however, isn't sold on the idea of financing the
Clean Sweep program with speeding ticket revenues.

"We don't feel it's appropriate," said Mike Mager, president of the
Canadian Automobile Association's Manitoba chapter.

"We're opposed to raising money and then putting it to a completely
unrelated program.

"They are mixing things that shouldn't be mixed." Mager said CAA is
completely supportive of hefty fines as a deterrent for speeders.
However, he said money raised from fines should go back into programs
that either support safe driving or improve Manitoba roadways.

One of the criticisms against Clean Sweep is that it's too focused on
fighting crime and not enough at preventing it.

However, inner-city activist and police adviser Rev. Harry Lehotsky of
New Life Ministries said a dedicated enforcement project like Clean
Sweep is sorely needed.

"We've got social programs up the wazoo," he said. "We've got
unattended programs galore. Where we've been hurting for years is
serious enforcement."

Speed over limit Old fine New fine

* 10 to 12 km/h $110 $144

* 13 to 14 km/h $110 $167

* 15 km/h $135 $167

* 16 to 19 km/h $135 $195