DOWNTOWN FOOT PATROLS PROCLAIMED A SUCCESS

Walking Officers Gain Information, Leads To Drug Raid

WOODSTOCK - A two-week pilot project that saw police officers walking
around downtown Woodstock has had immediate results and contributed to at
least one drug raid in the city, Oxford Community Police Chief Ron Fraser
reported yesterday.

Fraser made his report to a committee composed of local business leaders,
developers and youth service directors that has been gathering once a month
to try to address youth-related concerns in the city.

"I think it was very beneficial," Fraser said of the downtown core
enforcement program, adding that the real benefit was in establishing a
rapport with youth hanging around downtown.

"(The police officers) didn't do a whole lot of enforcement but they did a
lot of talking."

The program saw pairs of officers walking the downtown area between 3 p.m.
and 2 a.m. several evenings per week for two weeks starting July 18.

The officers were not on regular duty and so were paid overtime. Fraser
said this makes the program expensive and will be a road block to
establishing it as a permanent fixture.

No word has been given on whether additional funding will be made available.

Besides talking to those hanging around downtown, the officers issued
tickets, made arrests - some related to alcohol - and gained information
that led to a drug raid on a Dundas Street apartment in which several young
offenders were arrested.

Arresting drug dealers was exactly what Fraser had hoped for.

"It was these things I wanted to see happen," he said. "Alcohol (laws) can
be a little more difficult (to enforce) because you can't kill the source,
but with drugs you can."

In recent months some business leaders and residents had been calling for a
greater police presence in the core after reports of frequent vandalism and
clients and pedestrians saying they felt intimidated by loitering youth.

Fraser said a lack of manpower and resources was the reason a greater
presence hasn't been available but continuing the program, even on a less
frequent basis, would be invaluable.

"Every once in a while we have to get our presence down here," he said.

Royal Bank manager Don Wood, whose business received dozens of complaints
from customers over the years and was a favourite spot for skateboarders,
said he's seen immediate effects from the patrols.

"We haven't gotten a phone call in three weeks," he said. "From our
standpoint it was excellent."

Wood said that in the past youth had no fear of police when hanging around
downtown but that's changed now.

"They weren't being tested before."

Susan Atkinson, director of the Oxford Youth Trust Centre, approved of the
program but was cautious of the results.

"I think it's smart and important to get the problems out of the downtown
area but I think it's important to see where it re-erupts."