COPS IN CORE SLOW HOOKERS, DRUG DEALERS

The downtown foot patrol started five months ago by the Abbotsford Police
is getting good marks from police, businesses and residents of the area
while making drug traffickers and their clients nervous.

"The improvement has been 85 per cent. (The problems) haven't stopped but
it's certainly better than last summer," said Jeff Brown, a member of the
Neighbourhood Action Group.

"There's been a noticeable difference. It makes the merchants feel better,
it makes the public feel better. It's affecting a whole lot of people,"
said Mary Reeves, manager of the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association.

Brown and his neighbours formed NAG a year ago after the crime and
transients that began to infiltrate the comfortable residential avenues
became intolerable.

After living quietly in their homes adjacent to downtown for 10, 20 or 30
years, residents began to witness fights on their front yards, prostitutes
servicing their clients in parked cars and drugs being sold in the open.
Strangers would stagger into backyards or run in looking for safe haven,
Brown said.

"We've certainly seen a lot of activity here. We couldn't take it any
more," he said.

Two well-attended neighbourhood meetings with home owners and tenants led
to meetings with city officials and the police.

At the same time, the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association began its
campaign to develop a special zoning bylaw in the historic core to stop the
proliferation of businesses and services that seem to draw in a criminal
element. The hope is the bylaw will attract a healthy blend of businesses.

Then last March Abbotsford began a six-month pilot project with Sgt. Tom
Chesley overseeing four officers who walk the area. The resources are well
used, Chesley said.

Besides drugs, weapons, fighting and theft arrests, the officers now have
more information about significant participants in that crime culture, he said.

"I'm very happy, very happy so far. We've had two significant drug arrests.
In one arrest we got 66 flaps of heroin and cocaine, (destined for downtown
customers). That came about simply by being in the area and watching the
scene," Chesley said.

Although some late-night bar fights do occur, the numbers are down and "the
bar owners are certainly happy to see our guys go down there," he said.

As well as nabbing criminals, the presence of police officers is certain to
have a preventative effect, said Chesley.

So when the pilot project ends in two weeks, Chesley's report will be a
positive one.

"It'll be my recommendation that it should continue. There's certainly a
lot more work to be done there," he said. If the foot patrol team is
cancelled, there's a good chance the criminal activity will creep up the
same level it was before, he said.

Brown hopes the patrols continue.

"It's very comforting to see a patrol car zip through your neighbourhood
once in a while rather than never," he said.

Brown, a home appraiser for 15 years, is sure the old residential
neighbourhood is a gold mine waiting to be rescued from urban decay.

He hopes city officials attack that urban blight more vigorously by forcing
landlords to follow city bylaws; for instance, those covering unsightly
premises.

"It's a creeping blight that will go on," unless there is more political

will directed at the root causes, he said.

Brown points to other communities such as Langley and Calgary which have
battled the decay and won.

"We don't want to be doing this. We want to go back to our quiet lives,"
Brown said.

"I think it would be a really big mistake (to end the foot patrols)," said
Reeves.

"You cannot ignore the problems here because it will keep growing and
affecting the rest of the community," she said.