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."
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