DRUG CRACKDOWN PUSHES OTHER CRIME DOWN, TOO

A police crackdown on drugs has led to a sharp drop in
break-and-enters and auto theft, Kelowna city council heard Monday.

A zero-tolerance policy on crackhouses, along with increased drug
enforcement downtown, has been particularly effective in curbing
drug-related crime, RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon said.

"That's what's really turned the corner for us," McKinnon said as he
presented a review of six-month crime stats.

Drug charges soared between April and September by 71 per cent over
the same period last year, from 1,134 to 1,942 as police stepped up
their enforcement campaign.

But the crackdown has been accompanied by a 15 per cent drop in auto
theft, 458 to 389, and a 26 per cent decline in break-ins, from 866 to 644.

People heavily involved in the drug trade often steal cars and use
them to commit more break-ins, Const. Tim Shields told council.

"The root cause of auto theft is drug addiction," said Shields, who
showed council the video Stolen Lives, on which he was the executive producer.

It's designed to discourage teens from getting involved in stealing
cars and the drug trade.

The video includes interviews with relatives of people killed by
drug-addicts driving stolen cars, the thieves themselves and
occasionally graphic hospital footage.

The combination of drug use and vehicle theft too often leads to
"misery, death, heartache and pain," Shields said. The video will be
shown to all local Grade 10 students this year.

While police say progress is being made at the local level in
tackling the drug trade and spin-off property crime, they noted a
sharp rise in assaults.

Between April and September, 1,024 people were assaulted in Kelowna,
up 28 per cent over the same period in 2006.

McKinnon suggested police would soon begin a renewed effort to reduce
the number of assaults, but cautioned that would be difficult in part
because so much of the violence is related to the drug trade, with
dealers fighting among themselves in turf wars.

"The stabbings, the woundings, they're all drug-related," McKinnon said.

Other crime trends over the past six months, compared to last year include:

- - Spousal assaults were up almost 20 per cent, from 200 to 238. One
third of all domestic assault cases involved a female offender.

- - Reports of theft under $5,000 in value dropped 13 per cent.

- - Total calls for service went up two per cent and the number of
prisoners lodged in cells was up one per cent.