COPS ASK CITY FOR MILLIONS IN OVERTIME

The Vancouver police department is requesting $2.3 million to cover
overtime costs to ensure a temporary enforcement team planned for the
Downtown Eastside continues to operate until the end of the year.

Insp. Bob Rich, police commander for the Downtown Eastside, said the city
funding is needed to keep a core of the newly created 60-member city-wide
Enforcement Team operating beyond June.

The goal of the team, which will run from April to June, is to restore
order to a community overrun with drug dealers, said Rich. The team will be
composed of officers from several departments, including traffic and
community policing centres.

The $2.3 million would cover an additional 16 shifts-eight cops for day
shift and eight for afternoon shift-from June to December. Officers working
on those shifts would supplement members currently working in the Downtown
Eastside.

"I don't want to sound preachy when I say this, but honestly, the only
reason we're doing this is for the best needs of the community-not the
police department," Rich said. "All we're doing is exposing ourselves to
criticism here. We don't need this."

The police request has already come under fire from community AIDS groups,
the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Pivot Legal Society, which
say the money would be better spent on harm-reduction programs and treatment.

Last week, the B.C. Persons with AIDS Society, AIDS Vancouver and the
YouthCO AIDS Society sent a letter to Mayor Larry Campbell citing fears
about increased transmission of HIV if addicts are scared away from needle
exchanges by police.

The Pivot Legal Society claims the police department is routinely violating
the rights of residents in the Downtown Eastside, and more cops in the area
would only exacerbate the situation.

"The injection of more policing resources, without the simultaneous
creation of an effective and impartial mechanism for external oversight of
the VPD, would leave Downtown Eastside residents exposed to the
unaccountable exercise of police authority," wrote society director Tim
Howard in a letter sent Campbell and council Monday.

Evan Wood, a research associate at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS, pointed out 700,000 fewer needles were distributed by the city's
largest needle exchange in 2002 than 2000, saying addicts aren't able to
access syringes because of police enforcement.

Wood noted studies in the United States show enforcement doesn't solve the
drug problem when other pillars-prevention, treatment and harm
reduction-aren't in place. Simply spending more money on police resources
will only force addicts to share needles or use those discarded in alleys,
he said.

"Right now, considering drug treatment is so inadequate, it just makes a
lot more sense to put the money where you're going to get the biggest bang
for our buck," he said. "We've put money into that enforcement pillar
consistently over time and it hasn't reaped any public order benefits."

Rich said some critics aren't looking at the whole picture of drug use in
the Downtown Eastside. He points to the residents "holed up" in their
homes, afraid to go shopping for a loaf of bread as an example of the fear
rampant in the community.

"People deserve to have order on their streets, and unfortunately, simply
providing more treatment services and more needle services isn't going to
return order to their streets," he said. "Debate is part of how a community
should function, so it's not that I don't have any respect for them coming
to say what they want to say, but if you ask a drug dealer if he wants to
have more enforcement down on the streets, he's not likely to say yes."

If the police receive the $2.3 million, and the enforcement team proves to
be effective, Rich said the department will request at least 44 more cops
to maintain the police presence on the Downtown Eastside.

Initially, police wanted to have the 44 cops in place this year, but have
decided to seek overtime funding before asking for permanent positions. If
police don't receive, the $2.3 million, Chief Constable Jamie Graham will
have to decide how best to use existing police resources, Rich said.