RCMP NETS RESULTS IN DRUG FIGHT

Hinton Parklander -- Hinton's Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been
cracking down on drugs in the community -- and the detachment is
seeing some results.

"We listened to what the community was telling us, we listened to
mayor and council and we put out client surveys to see what the
people felt we should be targeting, and they told us the biggest
priority was drug enforcement," said Staff Sergeant Harold Milroy,
who took over the position in December 2003.

"So we just focused our efforts on that."

Over the past three years, the number of drug-related charges laid by
Hinton RCMP has been steadily increasing.

In 2003, there were a total of 48 drug charges laid in Hinton; in
2004 that number jumped to 103, an increase of 115 per cent. Milroy
said that in 2005, that number increased by another 15 to 18 per
cent. He said the detachment set drug enforcement as a priority,
which can be difficult considering the size of the local force.

"I guess you juggle that by setting priorities and that means that
you're not keeping everybody happy," he said.

There are currently only 16 officers stationed in Hinton, however,
that number is on its way up. The detachment is expecting three new
officers in the next year or so.

"The town has committed to two new officers and the mutually agreed
upon understanding is that those two officers will be dedicated to a
general investigative section," Milroy said. "They won't be patrol
officers, but they will be directed to focus on the priority issues
of the community, in particular drug enforcement and major criminal
investigations."

A third officer is being funded by Yellowhead County and will be
focused more on crime prevention and community relations, of which a
big part is education.

"The arrival of that additional officer is going to be geared towards
the educational end of the drug issue," Milroy said.

"Resources have allowed us only to focus on the enforcement side of things."

The new officer, who's expected to arrive by 2007, will help
reintroduce the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program into
the community. The program is designed to equip school children with
skills to recognize and resist social pressures to experiment with
tobacco, alcohol, other drugs and violence.

The program is geared towards elementary school students,
particularly those who will soon be heading to high school.

"The (new officer) will certainly assist us in the education end of
things," Milroy said.

"We're pretty much game to try anything to reduce the demand because
clearly when there is a demand people will ensure there is a supply."

Milroy said he doesn't think Hinton deserves the reputation of being
a community rife with crystal meth use.

He said he has heard Hinton referred to as the meth capital of
Alberta -- a moniker, he said, the town does not deserve.

"I tracked that when I first got here. I assigned a specific code for
all cases that we could prove methamphetamine was involved... it
certainly wasn't epidemic," Milroy said.

"It's a new phenomenon that hit us very, very quickly and similarly
we're all trying to comes to grips with it.

"It's here, it's here a lot. We wish it wasn't."

One of the factors in this reputation, he said, is the fact that the
town has not tried to hide the fact that there is a concern about
drugs and crystal meth in the community.

"Hinton has been very progressive in saying, yes we have a drug
issues and we're going to try and deal with it and resolve it for the
betterment of our community," he said.