FORMER COP BACKS MANDATORY DRUG TREATMENT

Veteran Of Mean Streets Says Sex Workers Shrug At Harm
Reduction

Governments need to introduce mandatory drug treatment for addicted
prostitutes or they will never get off the street and away from
violent predators, says a retired Vancouver Police Department officer.

Dave Dickson said the focus should shift from harm reduction services
to mandatory drug treatment because that is the only way women in the
sex trade will change their lives.

Dickson is now on contract with the VPD as a liaison person to the sex
trade. He served 25 years as a VPD officer before retiring in 2003.
Most of his work as a cop related to the sex trade and the Downtown
Eastside, where he was working Wednesday when the Courier contacted
him. "Stop pouring millions of dollars into this harm reduction--and
showing people how to live with their addiction--and actually start
helping them get out of it," he said. "Until that happens, I don't
think you're going to see any improvement down here."

Sunday's conviction of Robert Willie Pickton on six counts of second
degree murder of women from the Downtown Eastside was met with
indifference, Dickson said. "It doesn't mean much [to the women].
Their lives are so miserable down here with the addictions and a whole
bunch of other stuff. It hasn't changed at all down here for them.
It's still violent."

Dickson was the officer in 1997 who forwarded a report to his
inspector on women going missing from the Downtown Eastside. Dickson
was part of the VPD's review team on the file until the RCMP got involved.

"I knew there was something going on, but we just couldn't say what,"
he said, adding that his report was based on contacts he made with
various prostitute advocacy groups. "The bottom line is that [a string
of murders] could happen again tomorrow. It doesn't matter how much
we've learned from the Pickton case because there are still the issues
of addiction and isolation for these women. These weren't women who
phoned home every week. Their contact was minimal, so when they went
missing, no one really noticed."

Added Dickson: "The bottom line is that they get into a car with one person
or more--strangers--and go to an unknown location for $20 or $50. So how do
you fight that? How do you keep them safe?"

Dickson called Mayor Sam Sullivan's plan in which doctors would
prescribe legal drugs to prostitutes as "unrealistic." He said legal
drugs continue the addiction cycle. "Anything any doctor prescribes is
going to be next to worthless," he said. "It's going to be weak. If
I'm a drug dealer and somebody's going to be handing out free drugs,
you can bet I'm just going to make my stuff stronger and better."

Kate Gibson, executive director of the WISH drop-in centre for street
prostitutes in the Downtown Eastside, agreed the street scene for
women remains violent.

But thank goodness, Gibson said, that Pickton was convicted. News
footage of his conviction was watched by many women at WISH on Sunday
night, she added.

"But it's not as if putting one person behind bars is going to change
everything--unfortunately. It's just not."

Gibson said she is still working to open a 24-hour drop-in centre for
women. WISH, located at the First United Church on Gore Street,
currently operates six days a week from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

A year ago this month, city council approved leasing one floor of the
VPD's police evidence warehouse at Alexander and Gore to WISH. The
lease is for 10 years.

Gibson said she expects to move to the bigger location in the early
summer once the nonprofit organization receives a city permit.