November 28, 1995


          To:              Mayor Philip Owen
                           Members of City Council

          From:            Chief Constable R.J. (Ray) Canuel

          Subject:         Status Report on Community-Based Policing

          The attached report deals with the status of the ten strategies outlined in the report to Council submitted on September
          27, 1994.  It does not deal with some of the larger,  philosophical  issues related to the organization and funding of
          community-based policing initiatives which are currently under discussion in the community.

          Some communities have taken the position that the City should fund paid coordinators for Community police initiatives. 
          The Police Department has not funded paid staff for any of these programs within its budgets, and we are not considering
          any change in this policy.  Budget pressures within the Department are significant.  We need additional police resources
          to offset losses to long term illness and other absences, and to meet increasing workloads.  We need physical
          improvements to facilities and equipment.  Yet, City Council is also faced with increasing costs.  At Council s
          instruction, we are preparing budgets based on reductions necessary to meet taxation limits.

          In order to ensure that our scarce resources are spent wisely, we have requested that SFU provide graduate students to
          conduct an evaluation of our community-policing initiatives in the spring of 1996.  We look forward to reviewing the
          Attorney General s comments on community-based policing.  Further, we intend to examine the relative roles of the two
          senior governments and the municipality in crime prevention to see how other resources can be used to supplement the work
          of the Vancouver Police Department and its citizen volunteers.

          We will report back to the Vancouver Police Board and City Council once we have examined our current programs and
          potential directions in community-based policing.  We expect this will be before mid 1996.



          R.J. (Ray) Canuel
          Chief Constable

          Attachment

          COUNCIL\1995\CBPSTS.GLD