POLICE MUST BE ABLE TO MONITOR SUSPECTS' TELEPHONE CALLS

Re. Feb. 23 editorial by Rick Zemanek regarding the use of dial number
recorders by police, headlined Protecting privacy:

I can only hope the B.C. court decision will be appealed by the Crown and
subsequently overturned by a higher court.

If the decision is allowed to stand, its influence will not be restricted
to drug cases. It will have an impact on all criminal cases including
murder, kidnaping, sexual assault, to name a few. The decision is a victory
for those who commit crime.

Statistics Canada announced recently that the overall drug crime is at a
20-year high, up 42 per cent in the last decade.

People aged 18-24 had the highest rate of drug offences and 684 Canadians
died in drug-related homicides. These facts should cause all Canadians to
seriously consider how far they are prepared to let protection of privacy
go at the expense of their quality of life and that of those they love.

Police officers nationwide have been struggling for years under the burden
of paperwork.

The judicial authorizations required, disclosure of case material and trial
time scheduled have changed because the judicial system has turned into a
bureaucratic system.

A recently aired W-5 program featured a panel of Toronto homicide
detectives discussing the ever-growing problems in conducting murder
investigations.

Having worked homicide myself for about half of my 30 years as a police
officer, I agree with their observations that people are losing faith in
the system. While the number of murders has not jumped dramatically over
the years, in 1985 Toronto detectives made arrests in 95 per cent of the
murders.In 2003, this plummeted to 53 per cent.

One detective, who could have been on the street pursing a suspect, stated
he was forced to spend three weeks in his office to prepare a 700-page
application for a DNA warrant. A successful homicide investigation in
Toronto, 10 to 15 years ago, could be housed in two banker boxes. The
Toronto detectives note, today, a similar case produces 30 to 40 such
banker boxes and the number is growing.

The problem does not involve only an investigation - trials are longer too.

Murder trials I was involved in during the mid to late 1980s took two to
three weeks; a four week trial was a rarity.

Today, Toronto Crown prosecutor Paul McDermott states, "(Homicide trials)
take months, sometimes a year."

Toronto detectives observed that things take longer because the balance
between the rights of the accused and the effectiveness of the justice
system has been lost. They state "You can't actually get there to arrest
the person for their crime because you have so many hoops to jump over."

In 2001, Red Deer recorded 9,716 Criminal Code cases. In 2003, the number
rose to 16,046, an increase of 67 per cent.

More and more, judicial processes such as search warrants are being
required for the most minor investigative steps. What should be "Life in
the Streets" for officers has become "Life in the Office."

Many of the 16,046 crimes are committed because of illegal drugs.

A recent armed robbery trial featured in the Advocate documented how young
lives had devolved because of drug addiction. It should be obvious that
such drug use greatly endangers public safety and life.

The people charged in the case presided over by Judge Douglas Halfyard
profit from this human misery, which has just been made that much easier.

Peter Calvert Red Deer