CRITICAL EVALUATION ESSENTIAL TO FOUR PILLARS STRATEGY

Far from dismissing the Human Rights Watch report into the health impacts
of the Vancouver Police Department enforcement program in the Downtown
Eastside, as claimed in the Sun editorial of June 14, (Public inquiry
needed into Vancouver), my office worked with Vancouver Coastal Health and
the Vancouver Police Department to review as closely as possible all of the
allegations and recommendations it contained.

Our detailed reply, which is available on the City of Vancouver Web site,
repeated our commitment to "uphold the highest possible standards of
ethical conduct and [to] welcome independent scrutiny to ensure those
standards are upheld."

Our review found that the allegations that could be subjected to
independent evaluation appeared to be unfounded. In particular, the
allegation of an illegal strip search, which Human Rights Watch said its
researchers had witnessed, was denied by interviews with the person
searched, the five police involved, two paramedics and a civilian onlooker.

In addition, careful review by VCH of the health impacts of the city-wide
Enforcement Team initiative found no clear evidence that intravenous drug
users were reducing their access to health services as a result. This issue
remains a concern and evaluation and monitoring measures are in place to
allow a full and timely assessment.

I am pleased that PIVOT Legal Society has at last taken its complaints of
police abuse to the Police Complaint Commissioner, as I have been urging
them to do since late last year. It will be up to Commissioner Dirk
Ryneveld to determine whether or not a public inquiry, as proposed by
PIVOT, would be helpful.

Critical evaluation is essential to the Four Pillars strategy, but poorly
researched or undocumented allegations can only undermine confidence in
this difficult project. That's why it was important to take Human Rights
Watch seriously -- and urge them to correct what I believe was an
inadequate report.

Larry W. Campbell

Mayor, City of Vancouver