Advocacy groups gathered in the Downtown Eastside’s Pigeon Park today to announce that changes made in the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) draft business plan are “incredibly superficial.”

According to recent reports, VPD modifications included the removal of provisions to increase the number of tickets as well as the removal of specific targets on street checks.

“It’s to create a perception of change in this neighbourhood—in fact the actual practice is exactly the same,” said Harsha Walia, project coordinator for the The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.

“The plan still solely and disproportionately targets the Downtown Eastside with explicit plans to eliminate street vending, to continue with a ticketing campaign, and to increase police presence. These are still street sweeps fuelled by the 2010 Olympics.”

The older version of the VPD business plan pushed police to crack down on street disorder by ticketing minor offences such as loitering and pan-handling and set a quota of four street checks per block for beat enforcement officers.

“I don’t think they would have dared do this in any other neighbourhood,” said Douglas King, lawyer and head of the policing campaign for PIVOT Legal Society.

He said in 2008, roughly 12,000 tickets were distributed to residents of the Downtown Eastside for by-laws and behaviour that usually would not result in fines.

The modifications to the VPD plan were approved this afternoon by the Vancouver Police Board.

Morgan J. Modjeski is a reporter for The Hook.