CALGARY COPS' NEW NO. 1

Talks The Talk On Fighting The Fight And Cuts To The Chase About Putting
Unlawful Business Out Of Business

He isn't riding into town pretending to be some kind of mythical white
knight or Western movie sheriff.

No, Rick Hanson is a cop in a very real and often ugly world and he
wants to get down to business.

"I'm not saying I have all the answers but I'll do all I can do to
fight the fight and we've got to fight like hell," says Rick, who was
raised in Calgary, grew up attending St. Francis high and served with
distinction in the city police for 30 years before going to the
Mounties for a couple of turns of the calendar.

Now he's back. Rick is being sworn in as Calgary's new police chief
tomorrow, the unanimous choice of the mayor, city council and the
city's police commission.

"I'm not going to give you glib responses or tell you I can wave my
magic wand and Calgary will suddenly be safer. No one can say they'll
make Calgary into Nirvana, it ain't there. But I've got the best
police officers working their butts off to do the right thing, I've
got a commitment from city hall and I'm in a community believing if
something needs to be done, then let's do it."

Well, something needs to be done. Rick cuts to the chase and, unlike
others, uses no big words to try and avoid what stares us all in the
face.

"More and more people are tired of what's going on. Maybe 15 years
ago, people were more accepting but now they've had it. There's a
sense of frustration coming from the increase in social disorder.
There is a fear of social disorder and people say: 'We want to see you
guys fix it whatever it's going to take.'

"Here's what I'm hearing. You know what, we're telling the kids not to
do drugs and they walk out and see dopers in the mall and on the
street and the idiots are arrested and the kids see them right back
out. What message is this sending? These guys should be cooling their
butts in jail.

"It's scary out there and, if you're a parent, you have to be scared.
We've got a problem and if we don't get a grip on this drug issue it
is just going to get worse.

"There's a lot of stuff coming into this province and it's fuelling a
lot of the crime, a lot of the violence. Is it going to change
overnight? No. But we can't just sit and complain. We've got be more
aggressive about putting the right bad guys in jail and we will look
at every solution we can and every tactic we can and then build the
plan."

Rick says he will sit down with prosecutors and work with the courts
and social agencies where necessary.

We will see a highly visible police presence, more officers actually
on the street as they are recruited and trained.

Rick wants to sweat the small stuff and the big.

The new chief will present his plan to city council in the new year
but a new tone will be set long before that date.

Listening to Rick, you quickly get the impression he's hearing what
the public is saying and not just trying to cook up a butt-covering
explanation on how what we are thinking is all wrong.

"We're all aware of community expectations. If we think with bad guys
it's catch and release, then it's time to sit down with the justice
system and fix it. Guys who go to jail have to stay in jail.

"But it's not an either/or situation. There are decent kids and decent
adults hooked on something insidious and we have to get them off the
drugs. The guys we should really be going after are the drug dealers
and those running the chop shops and anybody else facilitating this
crime."

Yes, the bad guys need to be behind bars and not on some conditional
sentence playing Nintendo in Mommy's basement. The addicts really need
help. And everybody has to walk the walk.

"If you're a person with a good job in an office tower and classify
yourself a recreational drug user, doing lines of coke at a party in a
fancy house in one of the fancy districts, and then you shake your
head and say, 'Tsk tsk, look, we have a drug problem' -- well, you
aren't a street person but you sure as hell are contributing to the
problem. You can't suck and blow."

Mayor Bronco backs the new chief, including pledging to go to the
province to get more cash for more cops once a plan is in place.

"I'm confident we have a chief who will be very assertive in ensuring
public safety is number one. When people are going out doing their
unlawful business we want to put them out of business," says Bronco.

"The public standard has slipped and we need to boost it back
up."

The mayor is aware the slippage isn't always found in the crime
numbers. It is felt in polls showing crime climbing as a concern.

"People feel uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable walking downtown and
having some guy try and sell me coke but I don't show up as a crime
statistic," says Bronco.

Of course, on this day, the spotlight is on Rick Hanson. This page
tells Rick he still seems like a nice guy. Rick laughs.

"If you think I'm a nice guy after all this, well, God bless you. All
I can say is I'm going to give it my best. But, as always, the proof
will be in the pudding."

Well, so far, the flavour of the pudding is good.