Pubdate: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 1999, The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Page: F3 Author: Harold Levy, Toronto Star Staff Reporter TARGETED POLICING TO BE EXPANDED FOR NEXT SUMMER Community Groups Complain It Interferes With Rights Of Poor A controversial police program that critics call an excuse to harass the poor will be back on Toronto streets next summer - for five extra weeks. The Toronto Police Services Board voted yesterday to expand the Community Action Policing program from 11 to 16 weeks and spend an extra $1 million on it. It began as a pilot project this past July after several city councillors complained there were not enough uniformed officers to deal with drug dealers and petty criminals on their neighbourhood streets. The force spent $1.9 million on the program; funding will be increased to $2.9 million next year. Within weeks, a coalition called The Committee to Stop Targeted Policing was protesting the program. Yesterday, board members were told the program led to a 13 per cent reduction in reported crimes city-wide and a 20 per cent reduction in the downtown core over the previous year. Broken down by area, the report showed: * A 30 per cent reduction in assaults in 52 Division, the core of the city. * A 24 per cent reduction in robberies in 55 Division, east of the Don River. * A 49 per cent reduction in break and enters in 11 Division, west of Lansdowne. * A 17 per cent reduction in auto thefts in 42 Division, in Scarborough. * A 40 per cent reduction in robberies in 23 Division, in north Etobicoke. ``Let me tell you, it reduced crime considerably,'' Mayor Mel Lastman told the meeting. ``It is a great program and you can't put a put price on safety, particularly when kids are at school.'' But one by one yesterday, representatives of 11 community groups took the podium in a bid to convince board members the police statistics were incomplete and there was another side to the story. Rick Zerr, an outreach worker for the homeless, said police were interfering with the rights of the poor and homeless by demanding to see identification, interrogating them and running checks on them without cause. Zerr said he was concerned that city council is being asked to put more money into policing when it should be putting the money into social services that would help these people. Elske Kuiper of St. Christopher House, a drop-in agency for the homeless in the city's west end, said that many in her community had experienced ``harassment and intimidation,'' under the CAP program. Kuiper said ``individuals who are poor, homeless, people of colour, native community members and young people have been specifically targeted.'' Police board chair Norm Gardner later countered that if the homeless were being targeted, ``there would be thousands and thousands of arrests.'' Councillor Olivia Chow was the only dissenter at yesterday's meeting. Chow wanted the issue of funding deferred until the board addressed some of the problems that had been pointed out. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea