ENFORCEMENT TEAM FORCES POLICE BELT-TIGHTENING

The Vancouver police Department's traffic and youth services squads could be
scaled back this fall to keep the 60-cop city-wide enforcement team
operating in the Downtown Eastside.

Though the patrol section won't be touched, staffing levels for the traffic
section and youth services section, which does school liaison and youth
violence prevention work, could be reduced, says acting deputy chief Bob
Rich, one of the architects of the enforcement team.

"I'm not going to say we're going to stop dead in our tracks from working on
those things, but there's going to be a cut," Rich said.

The decision follows a "core review" of all police squads in search of extra
resources for the team.

Rich said the retirement of more than 100 cops this year has made it more
difficult to find enough officers to spread around. "There's nothing
wonderful about it; it's going to be painful. We have a pie and we're going
to have to reshape how we cut it."

Reallocation of funds from budgets within the department will keep the
enforcement team operating until the end of September, Rich said.

Deployed April 7, the enforcement team's mandate is to crack down on drug
dealing and restore public order to the streets of the Downtown Eastside.

Though residents of Commercial Drive and the West End complain the blitz has
driven addicts and dealers into their neighbourhoods, Rich said police can't
take all the blame, pointing out those neighbourhoods weren't problem-free
prior to the crackdown.

"It's gone nowhere that didn't have some problem before."

Areas around Davie and Bute have seen an increase in people living out of
shopping carts and "almost camping," but Rich said it's difficult to
determine whether the increased enforcement in the Downtown Eastside is
responsible. During the summer months, Vancouver attracts drifters from
across Canada, many of whom settle in the downtown core.

"People seem to suggest that's displacement, and I don't think it is. I
think that's the kind of thing we see with this kind of weather at this time
of year."

Rich said he was encouraged to see that more residents and merchants are
complaining to police about drug dealers in the Downtown Eastside, which
shows either people are no longer afraid to "rat" on dealers or have more
faith that police will make arrests.

"We had a situation where people had given up, and now they're more willing
to complain than they were, and that's a good thing."

The police had asked council for an extra $1.19 million to extend the
Downtown Eastside blitz until the end of the year, but later pulled the
request. Council has said it won't consider providing the funding until
seeing the results of an independent evaluation of the blitz.

In a recent letter to the Courier, Mayor Larry Campbell wrote that he
supports the crackdown, saying the police effort has won "widespread
support" in the Downtown Eastside.

Quoted previously as saying police could run a deficit to continue their
work, Campbell denied the police board or council has given the department a
blank cheque.

"If, in fact, a deficit results, council would have to approve a plan to
either cover that deficit or submit the budget overrun to arbitration by the
provincial policing authority," he wrote. "In my judgment, council would
support the police, especially if the evaluation is positive."

A company has yet to be selected to conduct the evaluation.