Pubdate: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 Kamloops Daily News Contact: http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679 Author: Robert Koopmans THE RED ZONE EFFECT Banned. Since last June, more than 80 sex-trade workers, drug dealers, addicts and johns have been prohibited by court orders from entering two neighbourhoods of the city's north and south shores. Many residents and businesses applauded the zones when they were established, saying they brought needed relief from street crime. Eight months later, is the impact still felt? Bob Hughes' office once sat on the edge of what he describes as "a war zone" - the epicentre of the city's street-level drug and sex trades. Today, Tranquille Road and the nearby streets and alleys are remarkably different. The open trade in sex and drugs that besieged residents and businesses is largely gone, said the executive director of the AIDS Society of Kamloops. His office sits on Tranquille Road and is one of the social agencies that provide services to sex-trade workers and drug addicts - the very people targeted by the red zone. While it's still possible to find signs of drugs and prostitution on the North Shore's streets and alleys, the open trade in society's dysfunction isn't easily seen anymore, he said. The reason? A thick red line, drawn on a map around a several-block area of the neighbourhood. The so-called "red zone" - one of two in Kamloops created last summer as part of undercover enforcement campaigns aimed at sex-trade workers, their customers and drug dealers - had tremendous impact, Hughes said. The North Shore red zone reduced the concentration of criminal activity that plagued the area and made the neighbourhood more livable again for residents and businesses. "It was a mini (Vancouver) Eastside. I applauded the RCMP coming in with enforcement, it really needed to happen. It was a war zone, the neighbourhood was being neglected, it needed enforcement. "The (red zone's) immediate impact was promising and important for the (North Shore) business community, which was being inundated, and, I would argue, had been neglected for many years. "It restored a semblance of safety and ownership back into the North Shore community," Hughes said. "But it will require ongoing enforcement, or it will prove to be nothing but a short-term solution." RCMP Insp. Yves Lacasse said police in Kamloops will make enforcement in the red zones an ongoing priority. A similar red zone around the city's downtown core will also get attention. In fact, Lacasse said one of the areas of greatest concern right now is the South Shore red zone, where it appears a handful of new drug dealers have emerged, fuelling new problems. Officers are always looking for ways to "turn up the heat" on crime, Lacasse said, and his teams will find ways to target problems when they emerge. "It was not just about implementing red zones and giving up on other projects, it's about staying on top of the problems. We need to be quick when we deal with these issues, but we also need to maintain. "As soon as there is a hot spot . we will go and attack the problem, and we will not give up." So, where are the drug dealers and prostitutes doing business in Kamloops, if not in the places they used to? Lacasse said information police get indicates many of the red-zoned dealers have been forced into vehicles, travelling from parking lot to parking lot, or into the bars, in search of their customers. Such behaviour is riskier for them, making the chances of apprehension that much greater. Future charges will also lead to further red zone prohibitions. "We used to have a very reactive police detachment. Three years ago, officers responded and tried to solve them. Now, we are trying to stay ahead of the bad guy. "We are making it very uncomfortable for people to do their (illegal) business in town, and that is all we can do," he said. Will there be more red zones, in other parts of the city in the future? Lacasse said no more are planned at the moment, but police will react if problems emerge. "If you recall what the North Shore used to look like, it was filled with drug dealers and sex-trade workers," he said. "If you were to take a vote, you would find the red zones have been very effective." Hughes agreed the key to the long-term success of the red zones lies in the ability of all the city's services and agencies to work together. In the earliest days of the red zones, many sex-trade workers were banned from attending the zones even to reach places that provided support services and counselling - places like his society's Wellness Centre. That changed, he added, after social outreach staff worked with corrections services to tailor red zone prohibitions for offenders such that they can still enter when they must, to attend counselling or seek treatment. Kamloops Mayor Terry Lake said the City sees value in socially co-operative efforts to reduce crime. The SHOP program and a community-safety partnership agreement now in the works hope to bring together social agencies and law enforcement to tackle the long-term problems that make red zones necessary. Until the day when such efforts yield success, however, Lake said he's content with the red zone concept. "Businesses and residents in those areas suffer from the chronic effects of street disorder, and the red zones, while not a solution, give some relief to them while other measures are taken." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek