POLICE SWEEP LEON

RCMP uncorked a new weapon Wednesday against the drug dealers and
criminal transients plaguing downtown merchants. Teams of Mounties,
bylaw officers and downtown patrollers conducted regular sweeps along
Leon Avenue and adjoining alleyways all morning. They ordered people
out of the area, told them to tear down their illegal camps and
checked them for drugs.

"The majority did move along when confronted with authorities.
(Police) did come across a considerable amount of aggressive and
belligerent behaviour," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Reg Burgess.

Senior officials with the RCMP were planning to send out the
"co-ordinated enforcement teams" on March 1.

A resurgence of the addicts clustering in front of downtown shops and
louder complaints about the problem prompted police to launch their
assault sooner.

"In view of the warm weather and the increase in the homeless
population, we've had to step up plans, and we began today," said
Supt. Bill McKinnon.

The sweeps will become a regular fixture in the downtown, he said.
Once new officers are hired in the coming weeks, four-member "street
crews" will take over and patrol the area every day.

"We're bringing in resources on overtime until the street crew starts
at the end of February," said Burgess. Many suggested police were
responding to a confrontation between 50 merchants and Mayor Walter
Gray at City Hall on Tuesday night. In fact, police had been planning
to bump up enforcement along the west end of Leon Avenue for days.

Robert Simkins, who owns a shop on Lawrence Avenue, welcomed the
renewed police presence.

"It was a breath of fresh air to come to work and not have to sweep
the sidewalk and ask someone to move," he said. "Kudos to the RCMP.
They did a good job." Street people were upset by the crackdown.
Manywere "very agitated" when they entered the Kelowna Drop-In Centre
down the street, said director Candy Sutherland.

"There's no place for them to go. They don't have homes. They get
kicked out of everywhere else," she said. "Consumers said there were
some pretty heavy-handed tactics. I don't know that for a fact, but a
lot of them are pretty distraught." Police arrested one man for drug
offences but detained no one else. The safe streets legislation, which
gives police more authority to arrest vagrants, has not yet been enacted.

Still, authorities have the right to enforce bylaws against loitering
and panhandling, as well as provincial laws against squeegee kids
impeding the flow of traffic, said McKinnon.

"To interfere with the running of a business by sitting on a private
doorstep is a criminal offence because they're interfering with the
person's operation of that business," said McKinnon. Sutherland
understands why police and merchants are frustrated. But she says the
people at the core of the problem are human beings who deserve better.

"Take morality out of the equation, and let's try to fix the problem,"
she said. "Why is it that we always spout off about the four-pillar
approach, but when it hits the fan, we run toward enforcement? We know
it's not the answer."