ADDICTS KEEPING LOSS PREVENTION OFFICERS BUSY

Of 768 Arrests Over -Month Period For Theft, Robbery And
Pickpocketing, Most Were Drug-Related

A team of Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association loss
prevention officers has discovered there is no shortage of
drug-addicted criminals operating in downtown.

From October 2005 to May 2007, the association's six officers
arrested or helped arrest 768 people committing a variety of crimes,
including car theft, robbery and pickpocketing.

Of the 768 suspects, almost 500 were crack cocaine users and another
130 were using heroin, according to statistics collected by the
officers, who have citizen arrest powers.

Recently, loss prevention officers helped nab a suspect in a
high-profile robbery and assault of an elderly man inside a downtown
church.

The officers can arrest a person committing an indictable offence but
have no authority under the Criminal Code to hold a person wanted on a
warrant, said Dave Jones, the association's director of crime
prevention services.

Jones said the crime statistics and their connection to drugs shows
the need for a better way to tackle the city's drug problem.

"We're kind of holding our breath here that the community court will
be resourced properly and there will be sentencing options for the
judge to make some differences in these lives," Jones said.

The community court is expected to open before the end of the year on
Main Street and cater to offenders in the Downtown Eastside and West
End.

The court will allow a judge to impose a broad range of decisions,
everything from jail sentences to rehabilitation or a combination with
emphasis on repaying the community for harm done.

To do that, a judge will be provided with detailed information about
the offender. Offenders considered for rehabilitation must plead
guilty and make a choice to deal with their addiction or mental health
problems.

Jones is quite familiar with the revolving door cycle of addicted
criminals being arrested and let out of jail the same day or next day.

Jones retired from the Vancouver Police Department in November 2003 as
the commander of the policing district that runs roughly from Cambie
Street to Stanley Park.

He accepted the job at the business improvement association in
December 2003 and continues to lobby for changes to reduce crime and
public disorder on the streets.

He noted Mayor Sam Sullivan's proposal to prescribe legal medication
to addicted criminals to replace illegal drugs has some good points.

The provincial government's purchase of 10 Downtown Eastside hotels
will also help solidify some housing stock for low-income residents,
he added.

The problem remains, however, that the city's justice and social
service system "is like an alcoholic family," Jones said.

"Just as in the alcoholic family, everybody revolves around the person
with an alcohol addiction. In this case, the justice and social
service system is revolving around a relatively small number of people
who have huge mental health and addiction problems and nobody seems to
want to recognize that person needs to get fixed or get put in a jail
to get fixed, if necessary."