POLICE CONSIDER DRUG SWEEPS

Plan Similar to Johns Crackdown to Combat Prostitution In
Dartmouth

It worked in north-end Dartmouth when residents were fed up with
prostitutes and johns.

Sweep in over and over, arresting the providers and the users.

Now, Halifax Regional Police wonder if it may be the approach needed
to rid a central Halifax neighbourhood - where one of its own was shot
- - of drug dealers, drug users and weapons.

"The plan that we're putting together really needs to focus on the
criminal element and also focus on finding a way to lessen the market
for drugs because the drug dealers won't be there if people weren't
coming there to buy drugs," police spokeswoman Judy Pal said Tuesday.

"The same way we were able to deal with the prostitution problem in
Dartmouth, where we not only went and made arrests of the prostitutes
but we made a concerted effort of ensuring the johns weren't going
there anymore, . . . we're thinking somehow of being able to apply the
same rationale . . . here."

Even though one of the force's officers was hit by a rifle shot early
Sunday in Uniacke Square, it has still taken heat from some people
there for failing to rid the area of its drug dealers, drug buyers and
weapons.

But Ms. Pal said her force hopes to finalize a plan in a few weeks to
help the community do that.

"If you can stop the people from going in the area to buy the drugs,
the drug dealers aren't going to be here.

"And if the drug dealers aren't there, a lot of criminality isn't
there and that means the firearms aren't there."

She said the force hopes to implement its plan by the end of the
summer.

"There are a number of things that are part of the plan, but we're not
prepared to release those details because it is not finalized yet,"
she said.

Const. Susan Foster is recovering from gunshot wounds suffered when
someone fired a shot from a .30-30 rifle through the passenger door of
her patrol car on Brunswick Street at 3:30 a.m. Sunday.

She and her partner were leaving the scene of a disturbance.

The 35-year-old patrol officer, a member of the Halifax force for five
years, suffered non-life-threatening injuries to her right leg and
left hand.

She was released from hospital Tuesday.

Const. James (Dwayne) Hodgson, 34, who was driving, was slightly
injured by flying debris.

Draper Donard Grouse, 18, of Charles Street in Halifax faces nine
charges, including two counts of attempting to murder the officers and
seven weapons-related offences.

A court had already prohibited Mr. Grouse from possessing or carrying
firearms.

The rifle used in Sunday's shooting has not been recovered.

Ms. Pal said people now caught with weapons in that area, and in other
parts of the region, will likely face as many weapons charges as possible.

"One of the things that we're doing that we did in this case, and
you'll find our police department doing more, is when we lay a charge
and a firearm is involved, we get NWEST involved and we try to find a
way to lay more charges," she said.

NWEST is the National Weapons Enforcement Support Team, which assists
officers investigating people involved in the criminal use and illegal
movement of firearms. Regional officers are on the team.

Laying numerous charges in weapons cases may help break a fear-fuelled
code of silence in the community, Ms. Pal said.

"If there is a way that we can ensure that there is a number of
(weapons) charges laid in relation to (an) incident, and they are
charges that carry minimum sentences of four to 14 years, then maybe
we can make a difference and people won't be so scared to say anything
because they know when a criminal is taken off the street, they will
be taken off the street for some time."

Police records show officers responded to 109 weapons-related
incidents in the Uniacke Square area from Jan. 1 to June 21.