There are only 167 grow operations left to be shut down in this city. New numbers released this week by Surrey's fire department shows the grow op team is on pace to eliminate marijuana plantations by the close of 2007. At the end of June, there were an estimated 300 home grow operations in Surrey, leaving Fire Chief Len Garis to estimate complete eradication by the end of November. Garis heads the city's Electrical Fire Safety Initiative (EFSI), in which the fire department, police and fire inspectors place notices on suspected grow operations. The owners usually flee, or shut the operation down. In 2003, officials estimated there were thousands of grow ops in Surrey. Enhanced crackdowns by police and the EFSI team has reduced them to a handful. [end]
Judges continue to hand out far too lenient sentences to chronic repeat offenders, a regional forum on crime and drugs heard Wednesday. While reforms are under way - largely led by civic governments and police forces - the justice system's flaccid response to drug-fuelled crime remains a major weak link in solving the problem, said several experts gathered by Metro Vancouver. Daryl Plecas, a criminologist at the University College of the Fraser Valley, said major gains would be made if even just the "super prolific" offenders with more than 30 prior convictions got longer jail terms. [continues 537 words]
Re: Sept. 12 editorial, "Driving them out." The notion that indoor grow ops are so dangerous that special legislation is required to deal with them is just another red herring designed to gain public acquiescence for a further violation of the civil rights of unauthorized gardeners; and leaving 350 out of 1,000 grow ops still running is nothing to crow about. There are only two ways to eliminate grow ops. One is to create a totalitarian society where police are conducting door-to-door searches. The other is to legalize growing a few plants for personal use, since prohibition is entirely responsible for the proliferation of grow ops. And, speaking of grow ops, isn't it about time we grew up and started facing the reality that marijuana prohibition causes far more harm than marijuana? George Kosinski Gibsons [end]
I gather your parents never taught you that scratching a bug bite makes it worse. ("Driving them out," Sept. 12). In my day, hippies smoked low-grade Mexican weed, complete with seeds and stems. When the U.S. all but closed the Mexican border, traffickers switched to the Caribbean sea lanes. When the U.S. sprayed Mexican fields with the herbicide paraquat, traffickers switched to Colombian sources (and cocaine) and North Americans began to grow their own higher quality cannabis. When the police cracked down on the outdoor farms, the cultivators moved indoors, adopted hydroponics and bred stronger strains. [continues 217 words]
Delta Police Det. Bob Eden and Sgt. Harj Sidhu seemed to have little to show for eight months of effort. They'd seized about $600,000 in cash and another $100,000 in jewelry while they unraveled an elaborate pot-growing and drug-smuggling operation between November of 2002 and the middle of 2003. But the federal Crown prosecutor's office didn't think they had enough of a case. There would be no charges, no trial and as if that wasn't bad enough, the police would have to return the money and jewelry. [continues 216 words]
A marijuana grow busting program is being hailed as a tremendous success, with a 65 per cent drop in home plantations expected this year. The remainder will be wiped out this fall. Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis received B.C. Hydro records in January 2007 indicating the location of 1,000 homes with extraordinary power consumption - considered a "signature" for marijuana grow operations. Under the city's Electrical Fire Safety Initiative (EFSI), those homes are inspected, and statistically, 900 will have dangerous electrical connections - most of those due to marijuana grow operations. [continues 376 words]
Regardless of where you might stand on the marijuana criminalization/legalization issue, Surrey's grow op busting initiative must be seen - from a civic perspective - as a remarkable success. This city - like many others throughout the country - was inundated with illegal grow operations. Despite the ongoing debate about decriminalizing marijuana to reduce its profitability and criminal association, the fact is it's still all just talk. In the meantime, the reality remains for cities, and that includes these facts: Grow ops are notorious for illegal and dangerous electrical connections that result in house fires endangering innocent neighbours. Children are being raised in these homes, in environments that include chemicals, mould, guns, violence, and other unsavory characteristics. Grow operations also are a magnet for criminal activity - as those in the trade muscle each other for territory, and other hoodlums conduct home invasions - often on the wrong and again innocent households. [continues 225 words]
Regarding Tom Fletcher's July 4 column: For non-violent offenders with chronic substance abuse problems, community courts are a cost-effective alternative to incarceration. I just hope Canada's community courts aren't misused for political purposes the way they are here in the U.S. Record numbers of U.S. citizens arrested for marijuana possession have been forced into treatment by the criminal justice system. The resulting distortion of treatment statistics is used by U.S. Drug Czar John Walters to make the claim that marijuana is "addictive." Zero tolerance drug laws do not distinguish between occasional use and chronic abuse. Canada should Just Say No to the American Inquisition. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC [end]
The "honour system" has finally been abandoned on the Greater Vancouver buses. The establishment of "fare paid zones" beyond the driver's seat and at least the theoretical appearance of someone to check tickets is an effort to stem the problem of people refusing to pay and assaulting drivers who remind them the ride isn't quite free. It seems that once a city reaches a certain size, it doesn't have enough honour left for honour systems. Surveys indicated that Ottawa doesn't yet have bus anarchy, but Toronto does. [continues 533 words]
A British Columbia Supreme Court case may challenge one of the main underpinnings of Surrey's new grow op program. This week, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Hydro had to return power to a South Surrey home after shutting it off because police escorted municipal inspectors onto the property. This was deemed equivalent to a warrantless search by police. Under Surrey's program, high consumers of power are served warning of a pending municipal inspection. High power consumption is a sign of a potential marijuana grow operation. [continues 66 words]
The city is increasing its call to arms against a drug that's ravaging Surrey youth and fuelling crime in this city. Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis says he's "raising the bar" on an initiative to choke off crystal methamphetamine (meth) at its source - -- the household items bought to make the drug. Garis delivered a report to council Monday reminding elected officials of the alarming trend regarding meth, a relatively cheap and highly addictive drug. It can be easily made and is sold for about $5 a dose on the street. [continues 261 words]
Re: Letter, "No one 'chooses' an addiction." People with addictions do have a choice. They weren't born addicts -- they chose to be addicts. And I think it is absolutely ridiculous that you would write and tell someone that it might be better if they did not have a hand in raising someone's child. You are obviously completely heartless. Put yourself in the position of Mr. Green and his wife. I am writing from experience, my sister had to go through invitro which cost her and her husband thousands upon thousands with no help whatsoever from the government or anyone. [continues 105 words]
Four months ago, Roy Hall was jobless, homeless, addicted to crystal meth and living in the bush in Surrey. He was out of money and had lost touch with his dealer, forcing him to struggle free of the drug alone. If the divorced father of four and former marine engineer could have imagined a rock bottom during happier times, this would have been it. So when four Surrey RCMP officers strode into the abandoned Newton lot where they had often visited Roy and his makeshift home, offering to get him help for his addiction, he was sober and desperate enough to agree. [continues 1037 words]
Re: "Drug addicts get free help while others don't," by letter writer Ryan Green (The Leader, April 20). What vitriolic fools like Ryan Green are unable or unwilling to understand is that when we help the addicts with a dollar today, we save $10 or $15 down the road. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but obese, diabetic suburbanites are costing the taxpayers many times more dollars each year than all the addicts getting free needles or drugs. [continues 160 words]
Dressed conservatively in a blue dress shirt and pleated black pants, Stephen shows off his new bachelor suite at Phoenix Centre, an addiction treatment centre at 13686 94A Ave. which hosted an official opening ceremony Thursday. Books on spirituality are propped on the nightstand beside his neatly made single bed while a kitchenette, sitting area and bathroom fill the rest of the 400-sq.-ft. space he has lived in since the beginning of April. The 37-year-old's current accommodations are a far cry from the places he slept while living on the streets of Toronto and Vancouver. Growing up in a single-parent home, Stephen, who declined to give his last name, struggled with drug and alcohol dependency and depression throughout his adult life. [continues 323 words]
Re: Drug Treatment Centre Opens in Surrey. I am so sick of people like drug addicts getting free services from the government to treat an addiction they chose, when there are people out there like my wife and I who are struggling with infertility issues (something we did not choose) and we have to pinch pennies just for the chance of having a baby. Talk about unfair, these drug addicts get thousands of dollars in free treatment while my wife and I struggle to come up with the $10,000 to $15,000 it will cost us to try and fulfill our dream. [continues 98 words]
Help for this city's most drug addicted has arrived. Creekside Withdrawal Management Centre, funded by the province through the Fraser Health Authority (FHA), was officially opened Thursday at 13740 94A Ave., across from Surrey Memorial Hospital. It includes 30 beds for drug and alcohol detoxification -- 24 for adults and six for youth. Creekside replaces Burnaby's Maple Cottage, which supported 1,200 people annually. Service providers have long said Surrey is in desperate need of drug detox beds. At Whalley's Front Room drop-in centre, in the 10600-block of 135A Street, about two people a day come in to call for a detox bed. [continues 154 words]
I wish to respond to a story that appeared in the March 9 edition of The Leader with respect to grow ops and the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The Ministry of Children and Family Development takes very seriously any potential risk to a child, including grow-ops, and our laws ensure that social workers are equipped to deal with any situation that they are faced with. Our child welfare legislation provides a broad mandate to protect children who may be at risk of harm, including those who may be at risk due to drugs being produced in the home. [continues 90 words]
New Alberta legislation protecting kids found in marijuana grow operations has caught the attention of social workers who continue to ask for stronger protocols for B.C. Last December, Alberta passed the Drug-Endangered Children Act, which establishes that having kids in a grow-op or meth lab environment can be considered abuse. An association representing social workers in this province said similar guidelines are needed here. "We liked that they were succinct in their naming of having children in commercial grow-ops," said Paul Jenkinson, B.C. Association of Social Workers, Child Welfare and Family Committee Chair. "If you're a social worker in Alberta, you have a much better direction, I think, in how serious this is." [continues 349 words]
The best thing Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts and Attorney General Wally Oppal can do to reduce "drug problems" is to get out of the prohibition business. No one was robbing, whoring and murdering to get drugs when addicts could buy all of the heroin, morphine, cocaine and anything else they wanted cheaply and legally at the corner pharmacy. The term "drug crime" is an invention of drug crusaders trying to cover the effects of their failed drug policy. Proof that hard-line, American-style drug prohibition causes drug deaths and drug crimes comes from the Swiss heroin maintenance program where addicts are supplied with cheap, pure heroin and cocaine. [continues 181 words]
I am an ex-junkie who spent the better part of three years doing heroin and living on the streets of Whalley. Looking back on that time, I am convinced that if we would have had a more rigid system like the one I propose, I would not have spent these three years being such a drain on society, hurting not just myself, but others around me in the process. You should serve an automatic six months in a secure detox facility for first arrest and conviction for any property type crime (i.e. shoplifting/theft/break and enter, etc). When arrested, it should be mandatory to test for drug use to ascertain whether the person is a drug addict. A forced detox scenario, like prison but more structured towards the safe detox of its inmates. [continues 311 words]
Four strands sounds a lot better than four pillars. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts unveiled an ambitious crime-fighting plan Monday, along with Attorney General Wally Oppal. The plan has four "strands," which makes a comparison with Vancouver's four pillars to reduce drug problems inevitable. Surrey's plan seems to have a better chance of actually working. The mayor has been working towards this plan for years, beginning when she chaired the police committee as a councillor. The four strands are: prevent and deter crime; apprehend and prosecute offenders; rehabilitate and reintegrate; and reality and perception of crime. [continues 537 words]
Get tough on crime. It's a refrain that has been heard countless times from frustrated citizens and law enforcement officers weary of the revolving door the criminal justice system represents to repeat offenders. Yet, although many see longer jail terms as the solution, the hard reality is that they do not address the root causes of crime. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts understands this critical fact, and it is upon this which her new crime reduction strategy is built. The City of Surrey is about to embark on an ambitious new program of addressing crime where it primarily lives, and that is in drugs, drug addiction, homelessness and mental illness. [continues 409 words]
There were so many arrests following a 10-day sweep for crack dealers in Whalley that police and prosecutors had to arrange a dedicated courtroom this week to handle the cases. Undercover police bought drugs from 58 street-level suppliers between Jan. 20 and Feb. 8 in North Surrey, then started arresting suspects on Feb. 13. So far, 25 people have been charged with more than 70 offences, all for selling crack cocaine. More arrests and charges are expected. It's considered one of the biggest drug sweeps ever carried out in Surrey, and police are promising there will be more equally ambitious crackdowns on dealers in the future. [continues 85 words]
Toxic chemicals from clandestine drug labs are costing this city a bundle, with expenses climbing after three dumps were found this month. Last week, two large meth dump sites were found in Clayton, and on Friday, a third was discovered by police at 28 Avenue and 184 Street. Surrey paid private firms more than $85,000 last year to clean up wastes from methamphetamine labs and marijuana grow operations. Some of those costs are recovered from homeowners when labs are seized by police, but taxpayers are on the hook for chemicals dumped in public areas. [continues 500 words]
People living near the scene of two chemical dump sites in Surrey were allowed to remain in their homes Friday after tests Thursday showed an evacuation would not be necessary. "There was no risk to the residents," Deputy Surrey Fire Chief John Caviglia said. Caviglia said the testing found red phosphorus, acid and solvents of the type used to produce crystal meth. Local authorities had warned there might have to be an evacuation of about 200 houses and more than 2,000 students in five schools after the two dump sites were discovered Tuesday at the northwest corner of 182 Street and 70 Avenue and the 7300 block of 194 Street. [continues 231 words]
A new Surrey campaign that used power consumption rates to uncover grow ops has located 30 so far. Fire chief Len Garis said every last one of the suspected residences visited by a team of Surrey fire and municipal inspectors (with Surrey RCMP support) during the first weeks of the new campaign turned out to have evidence of grow op activity and often unsafe wiring. "We found two outside electrical meters that were absolutely fried," Garis said Monday. The first team started work in mid-January. [continues 239 words]
Re: "Anti-Crime Plan Revealed by Layton." He recommends ramping up recruitment of RCMP officers to fill those staffing shortages. Layton lost my vote. He didn't even mention one of the main root causes of crime: The war on drugs. And we would need fewer officers, not more, if we ended that war. If this party -- or any party -- had the guts to actually come out and say that the war on certain drugs is causing more problems than it is solving, and that all drugs should be regulated like alcohol, then I would be impressed. But what do we get? A little from column A to keep the lefty base happy, and a bunch from column B to try and steal votes from confused and perplexed Tory and Liberal voters. What a joke. Russell Barth Ottawa [end]
Another shot at tackling the problem of crystal meth has hit the road in Surrey School District. School Fleet Media, the company responsible for advertising on district vehicles, unveiled two vans adorned with slogans promoting the province's "no2meth" initiative Thursday. No2meth.ca is a website to help students, parents and teachers understand more about crystal meth and other drugs that put young people at risk. Meth is "killing our kids," School Fleet Media's Len Sanders said. "The campaign is more directed at parents so they will talk to their kids." [continues 77 words]
TransLink's Transit Police will soon be armed with Tasers as well as handguns. A big budget surplus last fall allowed the service to step up its plans to buy the electrical-charge weapons, considered a less lethal alternative to firearms. "We have purchased 20 Tasers and we will be deploying them on the line when our people are trained," Insp. Daniel Dureau said. He estimated it could be a couple of months before the devices are in use. Some Transit Police constables will train as instructors and then be able to train the rest of the 100-officer force. [continues 408 words]
About 1,300 marijuana grow operations in this city probably include some 300 homes with children living in dangerous conditions, Surrey's fire chief estimates. An association representing social workers says it's a "crisis situation" in need of fast action by the provincial government. The children are living "with the possibility of being electrocuted, burned to death, smoke inhalation, poisoning, respiratory illness or someone coming in and beating the crap out of their parents," said Paul Jenkinson, of the B.C. Association of Social Workers, Child Welfare and Family Committee Chair. [continues 469 words]
I read with great interest your story regarding "Third guilty in grow op homes mortgage fraud," Dec. 27. It is interesting to note that according to your story only one person was sentenced to 12 months of jail time (of which he will serve one-third). I find this contemptible and obscene. Meanwhile, these fraudsters are allowed to amass millions of dollars. These sentences do not fit the crimes! These individuals should have to forfeit their ill-gotten gains as well - the homes should be confiscated and sold, plus a stiffer jail sentence for all involved. [continues 98 words]
Some Surrey residents are calling in bogus break-in complaints to get Mounties to raid suspected marijuana growing operations. The tactic was disclosed by a senior drug investigator during a B.C. Supreme Court sentencing hearing for a husband-and-wife team busted during a 2003 crackdown by Surrey Mounties. "There are an increasing number of incidents where frustrated citizens living near a grow operation report false break and enter offences (at) that residence in order to get police to act," said Surrey RCMP Cpl. John Karlovcec, testifying as an expert witness before Justice Bruce Josephson in New Westminster. [continues 352 words]
Re: "Invaders storm the wrong house," The Leader, Dec. 1. It's hard to decide which "wrong house" raid is the greater cause for alarm - home invaders intent on stealing marijuana or ninja-clad drug warriors intent on arresting marijuana users. Either way, law-abiding citizens can end up seriously injured, or dead. All over a common weed less harmful than alcohol, tobacco, caffeine or even aspirin. More people die in a single year from botched drug raids and home invasions than have died in all recorded history from actually using marijuana. By a factor of dozens to zero. Marijuana prohibition is the cure that is worse than the disease. Legalize, regulate, tax, control. For the safety of law-abiding households. Greg Francisco Educators for Sensible Drug Policy [end]
Last Week's Column Touched on Crime Rates Around the Province, Which the B.C. Government Tracks by Health Region. If you look at violent crime, serious property crime and non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live in B.C. is Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior region, which encompasses the Kootenays, Okanagan and Cariboo. In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the largest in the province by population, extending from Burnaby through the Fraser Valley to Hope. [continues 834 words]
Momentum is building behind the idea of creating a dedicated community run for and by recovering drug addicts that would be located outside Greater Vancouver. And the Greater Vancouver Regional District board suggests the addict enclave might be located on the Ashcroft Ranch land it already owns that may also be home to a new regional landfill. The concept is to try a new avenue of fighting addiction by following the model of San Patrignano, Italy. That intentional therapeutic community - formed from donated land and financed through the sale of goods inmates make, private donations and public grants - is credited with achieving a 70 per cent success rate in healing drug addicts and returning them to productive society. [continues 605 words]
When they couldn't find the drugs they were after, two home invaders stole a Surrey man's art collection instead. The pair forced their way into a house in North Surrey's Royal Heights neighbourhood about midnight on Saturday, demanding to know where the "dope" was. After determining there were no drugs, they stole 15 limited-edition, signed wildlife prints worth about $20,000, including six by legendary artist Robert Bateman. Kim (who asked that her last name not be used) said she assumed her fiance Ian had come back from working a late night shift when a knock at the door woke her up. [continues 278 words]
As part of National Addictions Awareness Week (Nov. 19-25), Deltassist is going into the classroom to speak to Grade 8 students about substance abuse -- specifically crystal meth. This year, the national awareness campaign is targeting the perils of meth, for users and the community at large. "We talked about various kinds of drugs and survival tips," explained Klaus Iden, an addictions counsellor. Iden said it's important to reach Grade 8 students because it's typically when "kids first start to experiment." [continues 221 words]
A new poll showing 53 per cent of B.C. residents have used marijuana at least once is disturbing, says a South Surrey psychiatrist. "People should be aware this isn't a benign substance," said Dr. Bill MacEwan, who addressed a Fraser Health Authority board meeting Wednesday. He said clinical evidence from here and around the world increasingly links pot smoking - especially heavy use at an early age - with psychosis. "It's a real concern to us that we're seeing these rates of substance abuse," he said, responding to the poll released last month by B.C.'s Centre for Addictions Research. [continues 478 words]
The province is under pressure to let cities try innovative policing tactics like video surveillance cameras, mandatory drug testing and to spend much more money to combat underlying social causes of crime. Surrey council is at the vanguard of the movement and Mayor Dianne Watts, who led a delegation to Britain this summer to find out how a 35-plus per cent crime drop was achieved there, pushed the premier Thursday to embrace similar reforms. "This is the way we have to go," Watts said. "We've seen over the past 10 years the things that we're doing just simply aren't working so we've got to make that paradigm shift." [continues 572 words]
Tougher sentencing of crystal meth lab operators and more intrusive measures to catch them when they buy precursor chemicals are urgently needed, delegates to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention heard Wednesday. Terrace Coun. Rich McDaniel said a meth lab was busted within 300 metres of both Terrace city hall and the RCMP detachment but its operators were sentenced this month to probation only. "They didn't even get a damn fine," he told a crystal meth strategies forum. McDaniel also pressed for even earlier efforts to bring anti-drug messaging to elementary school children. [continues 378 words]
Surrey RCMP drug section officers regularly violated the Charter of Rights by routinely faxing a judicial justice of the peace in Burnaby to get search warrants approved, a Surrey provincial court judge said. In a toughly worded written decision, Judge Ellen Gordon said the Criminal Code requires police officers to personally appear in front of a judge or justice of the peace to explain their application unless there is no other practical way to obtain a warrant except by using a fax. [continues 360 words]
The Piece "Grow-Op Kids: What Happened?" Of Sept. 29, Dances Around More Pressing Issues. The greater harm to these children comes from prohibition, not their parents' gardening activity. Since the state is unequipped to deal with the issue on any level, all of this is a dog chasing its tail. I question how unsafe the children are since we can infer none of these houses got inspected because of recent fires due to faulty wiring, suggesting probable exaggeration of the actual conditions in the houses. No mention was made of the scale of the risk. And frankly, trusting the findings without external corroboration is putting the fox in charge of the hen house, extending the canine metaphor. [continues 132 words]
After reading T. Downing's letter on surveillance and security cameras, it made me wonder where that person really lives -- not on this planet or Surrey for sure, but somewhere high above in the clouds, perhaps on the moon. All that talk about infringement of civil liberties and freedom because it is very nice, tasty and good, but not harmonizing with today's reality. The whole world has become a dangerous place. Too many people are full of hate and against each other and restless with evil. Moral standards have become fewer, often lost through greed. [continues 154 words]
In response to an item that appeared in the Sept. 29 edition of the Surrey Leader, I feel it's important to clarify some points - and in the case of comments attributed to NDP Opposition members - correct their misinformation. The article "Grow-op Kids - What Happened?" suggests Surrey's new grow-op inspection team found 155 children living in dangerous homes last year. When police or the fire department identify a situation, such as a grow-op that may pose a risk to a child, we work in cooperation with those agencies. We respond, assess and take the appropriate course of action. Every situation in which a child may be at risk is unique and the response to each situation is based on the circumstances and potential risk of each child. [continues 104 words]
More than 9,000 children in this region were reported as "at-risk" to the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development last year. The incidents range from children left abandoned in cars to far more serious accounts. Ministry officials say the number gives perspective to calls from Surrey's new anti-pot grow op team. The Leader reported last week that inspections of homes suspected to be grow ops revealed 155 kids living in "hazardous conditions" last year. The ministry was notified in each instance, and officials say all calls were investigated, but can't reveal if any children were taken into provincial protection. [continues 277 words]
The fate of more than 150 Surrey children found in "hazardous conditions" in the last year is being questioned by local MLAs this week. The Leader reported Wednesday that the city's new grow-op inspection team found 155 children in dangerous homes in the last year. Each case was reported to the provincial agency responsible. An official with the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development could not say what happened in each case, except that each was investigated. [continues 616 words]
In the past year, 155 children were found to be living in homes investigated as marijuana grow operations. It's a startling, deeply disturbing statistic. Think of a marijuana grow operation, and you're likely to conjure an image of a converted house containing pot plants and a couple of low-level shady characters care-taking the crop. You're not liable to think of a family, including innocent children, living in a house featuring highly hazardous conditions created by jury-rigged electrical wiring, and which could at any time be the target of a extremely violent rip-off attempt. [continues 510 words]
In the last year, 155 children were found living in "hazardous conditions" by Surrey firefighters working to shut down marijuana grow operations in this city. The revelation comes as Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis looks to expand the city's Electrical and Fire Safety Inspection (ESFI) program, which is designed to slam the door on grow ops and other homes deemed electrically hazardous. Under the year-old program, B.C. Hydro identifies homes using extraordinary amounts of power, and firefighters and city crews inspect the properties. [continues 220 words]
A New Direction For Crime Reduction In Surrey Was Unveiled This Week. A 38-member crime reduction task force met Monday morning to review crime strategies brought back from Britain last month by Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts and a 12-member delegation of city staff, police and provincial bureaucrats. Some of the tools used in Britain include the use of closed circuit television surveillance, identifying repeat offenders, a focus on treating drug-addicted criminals and an integrated role for the community and faith groups. [continues 363 words]
