CRIMINOLOGIST SPEAKING FOR TABLE

To the editor:

In his column, Allen Garr addressed the "love-in" at the mayor's forum
on community safety ("Get everything you want at mayor's forum," Jan.
14).

Of particular interest to me was his comment, "While others in his
group may have felt uncomfortable at the summary results of their
discussion, SFU criminologist Neil Boyd stood to ask for "greater
enforcement" no fewer than three times during his report."

This comment misrepresents reality by suggesting that my remarks
reflected my own views-that I believe the key to community safety lies
in a simple increase in enforcement. My task as spokesperson for my
table was to summarize the group's suggestions for change, many of
which were, as I noted at the time, contradictory. Opiate maintenance
programs, for example (which I strongly support), do not fit easily
with increased enforcement of drug offences.

Neil Boyd, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University