WHEN A CRACK DEALER MOVES IN

It happened in midday, when few of the neighbours on my street were at
home. But by the time the residents came back from work or school and
started to gather in the local park, as they do every evening while
walking their dogs, the news was all over the area.

And the news was bad: a crack dealer had moved into the basement of a
small 6-unit apartment building in our downtown neighbourhood, which
is comprised mainly of detached, and semi-detached homes.

Worse, the Toronto police had been out in force that day, their cars
parked all over the street, after reports that a fight had erupted in
the apartment.

Worse yet, the fight involved a gun.

And so the dog owners, and every other resident within a block or two
of the crack dealer's home were stunned. Many were frightened. Others
were just plain mad.

"What can we do?" said a woman who lives nearby and was clearly
scared. "How can we get him out of here?"

It's a crucial question - one that is being asked widely in my
neighbourhood these days, and likely one asked in other areas of
Toronto and the 905 region.

Seriously, what should a neighbourhood do when a crack dealer moves in
down the street?

Since the dealer arrived, my neighbours have been nervous. A former MP
says he's been propositioned twice while walking his golden retriever
at 6 a.m. by doped-up hookers leaving the apartment. A young woman who
used to do yoga in her front living room now does it behind closed
drapes.

Others have been hassled and jostled by the dealer's "clients." Still
others report a rash of minor break-ins and smashed car windows, all
too small to report to police.

Now, my neighbours are not easily shocked or angered. We are not
naove. We live in area that some would call "trendy," but others call
"tough."

We are used to prostitutes turning tricks in cars on dead-end streets,
youth gangs hanging out in parks, alcoholics and the homeless
stumbling along our streets, drug deals going down in laneways behind
stores.

We don't like any of it and keep calling the police. Indeed, our
nearby police station is one of the busiest in the city.

And we have car break-ins and home burglaries, but no more than even
the "best" areas, such as Rosedale. Even my brother in Whitby has seen
more car thefts and break-ins on his quiet cul-de-sac than I have on
my street.

Still, the mere idea that guns are now involved has driven up our
fears to a dramatically higher level.

On our own, though, we have begun to fight back.

No one is talking about vigilante-style type crackdowns, burning homes
and confronting drug dealers. None of us is that brave-or stupid.

Instead, we are tracking down the apartment owners, a couple who
reportedly live a few kilometres away, but who pay little attention to
the building.

We have stepped up our "unofficial" watches of the building. I did my
bit by walking the dog by the building late Thursday night. We are
also reporting suspicious activities, which we formerly would have
simply ignored.

And we are ready to call the police when we think we see deals going
down in the alley between the apartment and the adjacent house.

According to a senior Toronto police drug squad officer, we're doing
all the right things.

If a crack dealer moves into an area, the first step that neighbours
should take is contact the community response unit at their local
police station.

Get the police involved, the officer says. That's what we did - and
the police have responded. We see more police presence, even if it is
just a patrol car parked for a while at the end of the street, watching.

Once they identify the problem, police can develop a plan to get the
dealer. They can use plainclothes officers to watch the area, set up
drug buys, let the dealer know they are around.

Even if the dealer is arrested and convicted, the problem may ease
only temporarily. Police are rightly frustrated by the speed at which
many small-time dealers are back on the street.

Police officers say are vastly understaffed. There are roughly 100
officers on the Toronto drug squad to cover the entire city. There
could easily be 1,000.

That means they can spend little time on our tiny problem or yours.
Which is why my neighbours, fed up with drugs, especially crack, down
the street, are rising up.

Will it drive the crack dealer out? We're hopeful, but we are not
certain.

What we do know is that we like to walk our dogs in peace, take our
kids to the playground, or take a evening walk around our quiet
neighbourhood.

And we know we don't want to live in fear - and we won't.