PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON CRACK HEADS

RCMP are now using city bylaws to help identify and close down crack
houses in Kelowna.

Residents living on a number of the city's streets are exposed to open
drug dealing and use, impaired drivers, property crime and garbage
littering the streets because of the crack cocaine dealers who have
set up shop in some of the city's homes.

In today's close-up, Capital News crime reporter Cheryl Wierda looks
at what is being done to address the issue of crack shacks now and
what city officials are trying to do in the future with a proposed
bylaw revision.

Lawson Avenue is a pleasant looking street, with a number of charming
houses lining the roadway and yards overflowing with colourful blooms.

But a gaunt woman, riding on the front handle bars of a bicycle, gives
an indication of the problem facing residents of the street.

Near the corner of Lawson Avenue and Richter Street is a house that
has been busted by the RCMP several times in the past eight weeks for
drug dealing, and the illegal activities at the house are playing on
the nerves of the neighbourhood.

"It's kind a scary," one resident told the Capital News. "There's so
many people coming and going constantly."

Alongside the road in front of the crack house, residents can watch
drug deals take place. They're also faced with noise at all hours and
garbage that's discarded by crack addicts who stop for a snack.

"It's dangerous," said one young mother, who didn't want to be
identified. "I've heard them walking around, out of their mind during
the day. I worry."

Resident Warren Turner, who owns a security company, believes there is
a real threat to the neighbourhood that comes with crack addicts.

"They're going to start to see needles and things in the back alley
and you know--fist fights in front and squealing cars and that kind of
thing," he said. "Anything that's not nailed down, they're going to
grab."

Turner believes the current tenants have been living in the Lawson
Avenue home for six months, and the alleged criminal activity is
frightening residents.

"If they're not (frightened), they should be," said
Turner.

The problems that have plagued residents of Lawson Avenue are playing
out on a number of other streets in the community, which prompts the
question: What is being done by the RCMP and city officials to crack
down on the crack shacks in Kelowna?

Dealing with houses that are used to deal drugs is a priority for
Kelowna RCMP officers, says Cpl. Lee Hamilton.

Since mid-June, RCMP have targeted Lawson Avenue, Bay Avenue and Hein
Road drug houses, executing at least 10 search warrants at crack houses.

As well, an undercover operation in May focused on drug trafficking on
the streets of downtown Kelowna.

What he refers to as constant pressure by RCMP is having an impact,
says Hamilton, head of the downtown enforcement team which has been
part of the blitz of busts on crack shacks.

While it's hard for him to say how many crack houses operate in
Kelowna because they are so mobile, he estimates there are at least
five at any given time in this town.

When things get too "hot" in one neighbourhood, he says, "they go
elsewhere."

"It's unfortunate, but it's about displacement," says Hamilton. "If
the crack heads, crack dealers can realize that there's just way too
much heat in the city of Kelowna, they'll go elsewhere. We're already
seeing it."

But providing that "heat," or police attention, on the crack houses in
the community is a challenge, police admit.

"It's not the easiest search warrant to do, because crack is so easily
thrown away," acknowledges Hamilton. "It's not like a grow op where
you have a thousand plants and they can't burn them quickly enough.

"Normally it (crack cocaine) is in their pockets, their mouths, their
hands. As soon as we barge in, it can be easily tossed and hidden. It
makes things a little more difficult, but obviously our unit is
getting more proficient as we go along."

Aside from actually busting crack houses, RCMP are also working with
the federal Crown to look at using legislation that allows for the
seizure of a drug house if the owner is complicit in the illegal activity.

"That's one of the things we're going to try to focus on in the next
little bit, to show we mean business," says Hamilton.

Some officers also work side-by-side with bylaw officers in an effort
use as many tools as possible to deal with drug issues.

"We try and use our bylaws to the best of our ability," says Hamilton,
although he admits he finds it frustrating that they rely on bylaws to
help address a criminal problem in the community.

"We're resorting to our lowest common denominator of laws, which are
bylaws, to deal with these issues. It's crazy."

At Kelowna City Hall, bylaw staff have been using some of the existing
city legislation in an effort to address some of the problems that
crop up around crack houses.

One of those bylaws is unsightly premises, which bylaw officer Kurt
Szalla says was used prior to the demolition of five crack houses in
the past year, including homes on Fuller Avenue, Richter Street,
Stockwell Avenue and Taylor Road.

However, "we can't force them (owners) to do that," says Ron
Dickinson, city manager of inspection services.

But when confronted with so many problems that are in conflict with
city bylaws, sometimes landlords choose to raze, he admits. "It makes
more business sense to take down the house."

He couldn't say how many crack houses have been dealt with in recent
months through bylaws, as bylaws such as unsightly premises are not
directed solely at messes around crack shacks. As well, bylaw officers
often don't know illegal activity is taking place in the house unless
they have been told by RCMP.

"We may not even know it's a crack house," says Dickinson. "Most of
the issues we deal with are outside."

The City of Kelowna also has a nuisance controlled substances bylaw,
which has been used primarily to deal with marijuana grow operations.

Through that bylaw, city officials can shut off the electricity, water
and/or natural gas to a drug house if a fire or safety hazard is found
during an inspection.

Home owners can be ordered to make certain repairs before the home can
be occupied again.

The bylaw is working as the city deals with grow operations, says
Dickinson, but the bylaw, passed in late 2005, doesn't "speak to
issues around crack houses."

The difficulty in trying to shut down a crack house, notes Mayor
Sharon Shepherd, is that bylaw officers must find health and safety
concerns in the house that need to be addressed, rather than focus on
enforcing the bylaw based on criminal activity, "if they've got a bag
of cocaine," says Shepherd.

"With our present bylaw what can we ask them to do to bring it up to
code?

"We're very concerned that we don't overstep the bounds we have in the
bylaw," she adds.

The challenges in dealing with crack houses prompted city officials to
review the bylaw after it had been in place for a year, says Shepherd,
and staff had been revising the bylaw before the issue was raised at a
town hall meeting about crime issues in the Hein Road area in late
June.

"We're certainly trying to do more with the bylaw," the mayor
says.

The proposed changes to the bylaw are now in the hands of the city
solicitor for review. There is a fine line between what cities can do
and the role of law enforcement officials, Dickinson notes, and the
lawyer will look at that as he reviews the proposed changes. "What we
can do in the future isn't clear."

However, Dickinson said the city is hoping to have "some power over
the property to make it "clean and healthy and safe as quickly and
effectively as possible."

As well, Sgt. Terry McLachlan says they hope the bylaw will account
for safety and nuisance issues, and allow for recovery of costs for
the police investigation and bylaw inspection from the landlords.

But as the city and RCMP work toward garnering more tools to take on
the fight against crack houses, they note they need the help of neighbours.

"Really, we don't know that a crack house has started until we start
getting the phone calls (from the public)," says Hamilton.

Indicators that there is a crack house on your street are the amount
of traffic coming and going from the house, and the short amount of
time people are staying.

"As soon as you have...that foot traffic coming and going, that's
probably your indicator that you have a drug dealer living beside you.
And the second you know that, somebody should be all over that,
calling us."

And while many people are reticent to get involved--fearing
retribution from drug dealers--Hamilton says that's something
portrayed in movies that isn't actually true in real life.

"You know what, it's so easy to put a no contact order on them, and as
soon as they breach that no contact order," he says, "I can almost
guarantee that they will be in jail."

That person, he added, will realize very quickly that if they go near
you they'll end up in jail--a place they want to avoid being in.

To help RCMP, Hamilton encourages residents to write down licence
plates and the date and time that vehicle shows up, to assist the RCMP
in their investigation of the home.

"If more and more people are aware of the situation and more and more
people are calling us, then the crack heads are going to feel like
they are being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and say, 'we're out
of here,'" says Hamilton.

"But it takes a community to do that, not just the police," he
says.

One neighbourhood that has successfully joined together to address
crime issues on their streets is the Abbott Street
neighbourhood.

More than two years ago, neighbours on Abbott banded together to
tackle problems that spilled into their neighbourhood as a result of
displacement of transients and drug addicts following police
enforcement downtown.

After a town hall meeting, the residents formed a neighbourhood issues
resolution committee and were "empowered" by police and the city about
what they could do to take their neighbourhood back.

"Without getting in harms way," says neighbour Dave Thomas, "people
have to take over their own neighbourhoods."

Members of the neighbourhood, he says, are the eyes and ears for
bylaws and police officers, and are reporting incidents to those
organizations.

They've also joined together to clean up garbage and graffiti in their
neighbourhood on a regular basis in the hopes of deterring drug
addicts from shooting up in their neighbourhoods, transients from
setting up their beds--and then leaving them behind--and drunks from
loitering in the streets as they head home from the clubs on the weekends.

Thomas believes a clean and vibrant neighbourhood will deter criminals
from setting up in their neighbourhood.

He notes the streets of "least resistance" are the ones that typically
face problems, so residents in his area are "quickly and politely
taking it back."

"It's just the neighbours getting together and doing something
constructive, rather than complaining," adds Julie Cancela of the NIRC
group, which is in its third year. Neighbourhoods, she says, "just
can't stand and wait for the police to do the work." If an area has a
drug problem, "they need to call in."

However, it's not an easy battle. "These guys don't just go away like
magic," says Thomas. "It's been up and down." Despite that, he feels
neighbourhoods can't quit the fight. "You can't," he says. "They're
slow, but they get the message."