COPS WANT REHAB FOR ROBBERS

City cops are asking Crown prosecutors to start making mandatory drug
treatment part of their sentence requests for robbers with substance abuse
problems.

The idea is among eight recommendations included in an internal Edmonton
Police Service report, drafted in May, aimed at curbing what cops say are
rising robbery rates in the city. "It's based on the experience of police
officers - that robbers with substance abuse problems are more likely (to
reoffend)," said Const. Tony Freund, of the armed robbery unit.

"Right now, (drug treatment) isn't always a mandatory thing, often it's
voluntary. And if they don't follow through on their treatment, we don't
know whether it's working."

Freund said statistics on the rise in robbery rates and the role drug
addiction plays in property crime in Edmonton "are being compiled."

An Alberta Justice spokesman said the department hadn't yet received a
formal request from the city police.

A senior counsellor with the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission said
convicted robbers with substance abuse problems frequently are forwarded to
treatment programs as a condition of their sentence.

But Mary Ellen Jackson-Herman said mandatory treatment will only work if the
convicts stick around long enough to be convinced they have a problem.

"What does 'mandatory treatment' mean? Does it mean talking to a counsellor
once?" she said.

"Because, quite a few of our clients come to us not believing they actually
have a problem. And three weeks in counselling, for them, isn't going to do
diddley-squat."

And prominent local criminal lawyer Robert Davidson wonders whether
increasing the number of robbery convicts taking treatment might overwhelm
services available in federal prisons.

"I'm not sure our prisons have the capacity to put all those people in drug
programs," he said. "What do you do if there's a waiting list a year long?"

The city police armed robbery section is also recommending the service
detail an officer to examine robbery scenes and advise shopkeepers on how
they can prevent robberies, through better video surveillance and staff
training.