MISSION'S DOWNTOWN LOOKS UP TO NEW BEAT COP

For the first time, drug dealers, panhandlers and prostitutes in Mission's
downtown core are feeling constant pressure from the RCMP by way of a new
beat cop.

Six-foot-eight Const. Laszlo Bali has been patrolling the area full-time
since March 22.

Needless to say, he's made an immediate impact.

"It helps," Bali said of his size.

"But it's not my intention to push people around and get them out of town.
I'll offer them help first, and give them a choice. If they choose to
continue breaking the law, I have no problem arresting them."

In his first four weeks on the job Bali has already gotten to know the
downtown "regulars" on a first-name basis.

He's also become familiar with the problem of addiction; Bali says the drug
users he encounters are generally in their late teens to early 30s, and the
majority of them use crystal methamphetamine or crack cocaine. Those
addicted to alcohol are generally 40 and up, and some of the eight to 12
prostitutes he's dealt with are as old as 50.

He says he often finds these people in the wooded area behind the Mission
Library on Second Avenue.

"There's definitely issues down here," said Bali, a police officer for
three years.

"I'm not here to judge. We're not targeting a class of people - we're
targeting behaviour."

For executives of the Downtown Mission Business Association, it's been a
long time coming.

"The last couple of months have been worse," said Carlo Billinger,
president of the MDBA. "We know the regulars down here. But the faces are
changing. There's been a real turnover."

Billinger, however, stressed that the downtown area "is a safe place to come.

The problem comes when our customer parks his car and walks toward a
business and is approached [by a panhandler]."

Mission RCMP Insp. Pat Walsh said Bali and other officers are going to
"have a fair, but very firm no-nonsense approach.

The six per cent of the population causing 80 per cent of the problems will
be targeted should they continue."

Walsh admits displacement may occur, but says it's worth it if it gets the
wrongdoers off street corners.

"Should displacement occur in other parts of Mission, we'll target it there
too," he said.

And the timing of this operation, according to Walsh, couldn't be better.

"Once the weather gets better the problem gets worse," said Walsh,
referring to summer. "That's why we're already on this."

Elizabeth Clay, a real estate agent on First Avenue, summed up the problem
this way:

"If we don't continue working hard to fight this we could end up with a
downtown nobody wants to come to. But at this point it's still a vibrant
place. I think truly the community still embraces First Avenue."