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Pubdate: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Province Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Kent Spencer, The Province SURREY TO TARGET PROLIFIC OFFENDERS Plan Includes Community Court An ambitious plan to combat crime in Surrey will utilize a community court and high-tech gadgets. "This is a complete paradigm shift in the way things are done in Canada," Mayor Dianne Watts told a media conference yesterday. "We know it works from our studies in the United Kingdom and New York." The four-part strategy lists 106 recommendations and took over an hour to unveil to Surrey MPs, MLAs, councillors and representatives of 50 organizations at the conference. Gadgets include surveillance cameras on the streets and automatic licence-plate recognition cameras. They would detect fleeing criminals by identifying their vehicles. Surrey wants "prolific offenders" to be monitored by a "management team" as they work their way through the justice system. The team would work with probation officers, social services, health officials and the police to "address the factors that caused the offender to commit crime," said Watts. The RCMP arrested 360 prolific offenders last year. Problems in the fast-growing city of 420,000 include homelessness, drug addiction, property crime, marijuana grow-operations and prostitution. A provincially sanctioned community court would sentence drug addicts to treatment facilities instead of jail. Vancouver already has a community court pilot project. The report recommends hiring 50 community safety officers who would wear bright orange vests and help deter crime. A crime-reduction strategy manager will be hired to "roll out" the programs. "We will look for partners from the feds, province and ourselves for a three-way split," said Watts. She admitted there is no budget to implement the recommendations, but said taxes won't be raised. "I don't see this as a large-ticket item," she said. "There are a number of initiatives where existing organizations can support each other." A website will allow crime reporting in three languages -- English, Punjabi and Cantonese. "We have to convince the visible minorities that in Canada we have independent police who will listen to them," said Attorney-General Wally Oppal. "Surrey's approach is the right one. Our world has changed. We can't do business like we have the past 35 years. "We have to deal with the root causes of crime. We have to adopt an integrated approach with health authorities, housing, corrections, prosecutors and the police." Many recommendations are just that: advocating stiffer and longer sentences for repeat offenders, and speedier trials. "Everybody says we can't do this. Yeah, Surrey!" said North Surrey MP Penny Priddy. "This is a good Surrey story . . . Everybody needs to pick up their piece and own it." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek