Calgary’s top cop can be hard to pin down, and I often don’t see eye-to-eye with him.
I’ve disagreed with his stance on the police budget, distracted driving, and his response to investigations involving his officers. Just about a year ago, I took him to task for pushing a very old-fashioned approach to dealing with social disorder: Raising the drinking age. The numbers, I said last January, just don’t bear out his theory.
But there are times where we see eye to eye, and he has ended 2012 pushing a very progressive approach to crime — attempting to keep people with mental health and addiction issues out of the justice system.
Programs like the Calgary Drug Court have proven successful because they help deal with the cause of some people’s criminal ways, drug addiction, and ensure they receive help for that addiction.
Recidivism rates among graduates in programs like this are low, so they help reduce crime, and keep the costs to the taxpayer down. A win-win for people who want to stamp out crime and save cash.
Hanson has taken the approach a step further, and announced in a year-end interview with the Sun the Safe Communities Opportunity and Resource Centre would open this year, helping people get in touch with appropriate resources, whether health or social care, and hopefully prevent people from turning to crime.
These kinds of initiatives are essential to help keep streets safe, and are an important step forward.
With this pilot project a go, here’s hoping Hanson moves to pressure the province on his next big cause: So-called “safe jails,” where addicts whose crimes are more serious are serving time in facilities for addicts.
Every addict who comes out of jail clean of drugs is one less addict we need to worry about.