POLICE LOSE OUT OVER CRIME PROCEEDS

Call For Seized Assets To Be Reinvested In Enforcement

Chestermere homes used to grow marijuana could net the Crown more than
$500,000 if they're taken away by the courts, but it's unlikely the town
would ever see any of that cash -- despite paying a large portion of the
policing costs associated with the busts.

Crime isn't supposed to pay, which is why the courts take away ill-gotten
property and profits from criminals.

But there's no mechanism in place to ensure fighting crime pays
municipalities such as Chestermere, just east of Calgary, whose local
police can consume considerable time and resources on federal cases
involving drugs.

"It would seem reasonable to me that we can offset the cost with these
proceeds," Chestermere Mayor Dave Mikkelsen says.

But that's not the way the system is set up.

"The rule of thumb is the level of government that takes on the prosecution
gets the money," says Paul Saint-Denis, senior counsel in the federal
Justice Department's criminal law policy section.

Ottawa has agreements with the provinces to share criminal proceeds based
on the level of participation by local investigators.

The province hands out its share through grants: 70 per cent to police
forces for equipment and enforcement strategies and 30 per cent for crime
prevention initiatives.

Over the past three years, Alberta's share has ranged from $300,000 to
$500,000.

Meanwhile, one legal source told the Herald the Crown could make $540,000
from the sale of 12 Chestermere homes being restrained by the courts -- and
that's after creditors are paid off.

"We found the lion's share (of proceeds) always went to the federal
government," says Vic Toews, the Canadian Alliance party's justice critic
and a former attorney general of Manitoba.

"This is an area of concern," says Toews.

"If we want to encourage municipalities to take action on these matters, we
have to give them the proper resources."

Alberta's Solicitor General's Department is looking at forming a provincial
team to seize proceeds of crime as a way of increasing revenue.

The province pays almost $100 million annually for the RCMP to be Alberta's
provincial police force.

Chestermere has a subcontract with the provincial government that will see
the town pay $92,000 this year for two officers from the Strathmore RCMP
detachment who are posted in Chestermere.

But change is on the way: Chestermere's population is now 5,714, which
means it will have to negotiate a contract with the federal government and
pick up 70 per cent of policing costs.

And the cost is going nowhere but up. The number of officers will likely
grow to five next year, and a stand-alone detachment is on the way.

If the past year is any indication, they'll be busy. Since January, police
have seized more than $6 million in pot from two dozen Chestermere homes.

Many of the raids were conducted jointly by the local Mounties, RCMP drug
investigators based in Calgary, Calgary city police and the police forces'
integrated proceeds of crime unit.

The federal Criminal Code and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act have
provisions that allow authorities to get court orders to restrain or seize
any property believed to be the proceeds of a criminal act or involved in
the offence in some way.

The proceeds of crime unit has successfully restrained 12 Chestermere
homes, meaning they can't be sold pending the outcome of the criminal cases
involving the people who allegedly ran the marijuana grow ops they housed.

"That preserves the property so it's salable by the Crown in the event of a
conviction," says Cindy Peters, a federal lawyer who works in the
integrated proceeds of crime unit.

It's up to prosecutors to apply to have any restrained property forfeited
to the Crown in the event of a conviction or guilty plea.

Even then, it's not always wise to apply for forfeiture -- some houses in
grow ops may be too damaged to resell, and many are heavily mortgaged.

The $540,000 prosecutors could salvage from selling the homes may be only a
portion of their total worth, but forfeiture remains an important tool for
authorities in the battle against organized crime.

"If the profit is taken out of committing offences, other people may be
less likely to commit the same offence," Peters says.