CRIME-INFESTED HOMES CLOSED

Anonymous Reporting Helps Lead Investigators Of Gov't-Backed Program

PLEASANT HILL, Sask. -- Tenants at three Pleasant Hill homes were
evicted this month under a Justice Department program that aims to
shut down brothels, drug houses and booze cans.

The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Act, a program that
lets neighbours report suspicious activity anonymously, took effect
in fall 2004. By December 2005, investigators had sent residents
packing from 64 crime-filled homes across the province, Justice
Minister Frank Quennell said Thursday.

With help from landlords, SCAN investigators have evicted people from
eight Pleasant Hill homes, including three on April 7, Quennell said.

"I think in streets where there is a house where people are afraid to
go out of their homes if anybody is coming out of or going to that
house, we make a dramatic difference when we shut down that house,"
he said.

At a community meeting last week, Pleasant Hill residents challenged
the province to take action in their crime-ridden neighbourhood.

The city's first two homicides of 2006 took place in Pleasant Hill --
across the street from the other on Avenue S South, a couple of weeks
apart in March.

When a resident sees suspicious traffic frequenting a house, that
person is encouraged to call a toll-free number and report it.
Provincial investigators check out the homes, which usually involves
surveillance, Quennell said.

When the investigators have gathered their evidence, they present it
to the property's landlord in hopes the tenants will be evicted. If
the property owner is causing the trouble, investigators can apply to
a judge for a so-called community safety order.

Any future criminal activity at the address will put the owners in
contempt of court, and police can lay charges, Quennell said.

At least one of the Avenue S homes that became a homicide scene was
suspected of being a drug house, Quennell said.

"This is the type of place you'd hope somebody would report to the
Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit so that that activity was
shut down before the type of violence that often arises from that
type of activity would occur and somebody was tragically killed," he
said.

A drug house, Quennell said, can be a place from which residents deal
drugs or an otherwise empty home where people meet to do intravenous
drugs or solvents.

"It's pretty grisly stuff," he said of some residences he toured in
Regina busted under SCAN.

Dorothy Ross, a Pleasant Hill resident, recently heard about SCAN and
said she wished she'd known about it sooner. Ross said she's made
repeated calls to the police in the past about a suspected drug house
on her street, which was eventually shut down.

She feels like the neighbourhood has become safer since more crime
hot spots have been shut down.

"It's helped a lot," she said. "I'd like to see a lot more shut down
because there are a lot of drug houses in this area."

Brian Graham, president of the Pleasant Hill community association,
is less convinced.

"It's just a Band-Aid solution," he said. "It doesn't have any teeth."

In some cases where tenants are evicted, no criminal charges are
laid, he said. Some evictions just displace criminals to another
house in the neighbourhood, he said, adding he knows of one group of
dealers who are back on the same street peddling drugs after getting
evicted.

"It's a start and we have to be comfortable with whatever starts we
get, but is it going to solve anything? No, because eventually
they're just going to get smarter and figure out new ways of
dealing," Graham said.

The April 6 budget included money for two new SCAN investigators.

Quennell also said the program doesn't just shuffle drug dealers and
pimps around. Many landlords own numerous properties and aren't going
to rent to the same thugs twice, he said.

The justice minister said he didn't know how many evicted tenants
also faced criminal charges in connection with their activities.

Along with 64 evictions between November 2004 and December 2005,
investigators have also handed out six warnings, and in 25 cases were
able to take other measures to stop the criminal activity, Quennell
said.

To anonymously report a drug house, sex trade operation or booze can,
call 1-866-51-SAFER.