Pubdate: Tue, 23 May 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Author: Cal Millar, Staff Reporter FANTINO TAKES MESSAGE TO THE STREETS More front-line officers needed, chief tells groups More police officers are needed to patrol the streets and greater effort should be put into tackling problems caused by drugs, says Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino. He spoke out on these and other issues during various events last week designed to give the public an overview of policing in the city. Fantino, who became Toronto's police chief on March 6, told a breakfast meeting of the Yonge-Bloor-Bay Association and the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Association that he'll be putting more front-line officers on the street. And during a walk through the Spadina Ave. Chinatown district, he told local business owners that the Toronto Police Service will increase the number of visible-minority officers. People in Chinatown and at the business meeting said they'd like to see police out of their cars and walking the streets. Fantino said cutbacks, a hiring freeze and additional demands on the police force through the years had taken officers from front-line positions. "We need to get our people back on the streets, . . . it's that simple," he said. "That's what we are trying to do." Fantino acknowledged the Toronto Police Service is having "a heck of a time" getting recruits to replenish the organization, which lost a wealth of experience recently through retirements. "We're hoping to get into high gear with hiring," he said, stressing it takes considerable time to train new officers. Fantino said there's also a need for new police buildings, including stations in Etobicoke and Toronto's east end, to replace facilities that have fallen into disrepair through the years. He also said a helicopter pilot project will begin this summer that will provide what he described as critical support for ground-level operations. Fantino said helicopters are not toys but a tremendous enhancement for public and officer safety. "We cannot be left behind," he said. "Police departments all over the U.S. and Canada are using helicopters very effectively as a support." Meanwhile, guests attending a lunch at the Empire Club were told by Fantino that police know from experience that 50 to 70 per cent of all local property crimes, such as break-ins and robberies, have a direct link to the drug subculture. Twelve years ago, Fantino said, Canadian police knew very little about crack cocaine. "We had very little awareness of the havoc it was beginning to generate in some neighbourhoods of major American cities," he said. "Until we began to see it surface in Canada, we did not even know what it was, how it was made, the depth and organization of distribution, and had little experience about the degree of violence it generated," the chief said. "Whole communities have become crack-cocaine battlefields where the dealers are ruthless, well-armed, highly organized, and their victims have become the children in those communities." Fantino said in the United States and, to a lesser degree, Canada, an entire generation of inner-city children has grown up thinking guns, drugs and violence are all there is to life. Although crime statistics are down, the public should not become complacent but should work with police to solve problems and maintain a safe community, he said. "Regardless of crime statistics, my concerns have been and will continue to be validated by the stunning incidents of gunfire, murder and havoc that I personally witnessed in this very community (recently)," Fantino said. "To believe that any community will forever remain relatively free of drugs, violence, youth gangs, organized crime and a deteriorating quality of life, in my respectful view, is simply naive." Fantino said he doesn't want to be seen as an alarmist, but it's essential to develop community policing programs to provide the quality and quantity of service that the public demands. Community policing initiatives developed in co-operation with members of the public do work, although they can be expensive and are not an easy fix for crime and disorder, he said. "At the outset, at least, community policing initiatives are very labour-intensive," Fantino said. "Long term, however, the accomplishments derived are absolutely outstanding." - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder