COPS STEPPING UP PR CAMPAIGN

The Vancouver police department fired its own salvo in the public
relations war with critics this week when it posted a video on its web
site showing what beat cops face on the Downtown Eastside.

It's the first time the department has released a video on the
site.

Police have faced ongoing accusations of excessive use of force in
recent months, coming under harsh criticism for their blitz on drug
dealers in the Downtown Eastside.

The video shows area residents who are afraid to leave their rooms,
people fighting and drug deals on the streets. The Odd Squad, a police
team of filmmakers that shot the popular "Through a Blue Lens,"
produced the video, called "Picking up the Beat."

The launch of the nine-minute film comes a few weeks after the
department conducted a two-day workshop for the media on why police
use force when arresting a suspect.

Const. Sarah Bloor, the department's media liaison officer, said the
decision to put the video on the web site was made by acting-Deputy
Chief Constable Bob Rich and inspectors Doug LePard and Jim Chu.

All three men were behind the creation of the city-wide enforcement
team, the 60-member cop squad conducting the drug blitz in the
Downtown Eastside.

At Wednesday's police board meeting, Rich said 2,300 people had
already viewed the video. He noted the video was available to media on
April 7-the day police launched the blitz-but received little attention.

John Richardson, executive director of Pivot Legal Society, called the
video "pure propaganda" that contains no analysis of the problems
facing the Downtown Eastside.

"There's nothing even-handed about it," Richardson said. "They're
promoting their agenda and they're trying to make it designed for media."

Pivot, which represents marginalized people such as prostitutes and
drug addicts in the Downtown Eastside, recently turned over more than
50 complaints and affidavits to the Office of the Police Complaint
Commissioner claiming police misconduct. The RCMP is now investigating
the claims.

Pivot has a web site but can't afford to make a video showing how the
Downtown Eastside drug market has shifted to other neighbourhoods,
Richardson said.

"If we had a video, we'd put it on [our web site] in a
second."

Professor Bob Hackett of Simon Fraser University's school of
communication said it would be surprising if the police department
didn't have a strategy to counter negative publicity. He said any
major institution whose funding depends largely on public opinion has
to make sure its achievements and positive stories reach the public.

"In this case, with the video, it's repositioning themselves as
defenders of public order and themselves as being potential victims of
violence," he said.

Bloor, however, said the video simply provides people with a look at
the problems facing the Downtown Eastside. "This is not to win over
the public. We're simply putting this out for the public to have a
look at. If they choose to log on, then they choose to log on."

Bloor said police plan to post more videos on the web site, including
footage obtained in an investigation of people firing paint ball guns.

The department previously posted still photographs on the site of
suspects involved in last November's Guns n' Roses riot outside GM
Place, in hopes of identifying them. "Picking up the Beat" can be
viewed at www.vpd.ca, while Pivot's site is at www.pivotlegal.org