RCMP Watch

Lachlan Labere, Salmon Arm Observer

Faced with increasing calls for service from rural areas, local RCMP detachments are welcoming the influence of the regional district on the province for approving needed resources.“It’s not up to us, the RCMP, to ask you guys to do anything, but perhaps a government agency needs to look at policing and look at what they can do upwards from us,” said Salmon Arm Staff Sgt. Dave Williams in a presentation to the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board at its July 19 regular meeting.

Accompanying Williams was Sicamous detachment’s Sgt. Jim Harrison and Vernon detachment’s Sgt. Len Carlson.

Williams said that calls in the rural areas, in particular Tappen and Blind Bay, continue to grow with the increasing population, tourism and business.

In response, Williams said the Salmon Arm detachment has committed resources as much as possible in these areas.

”We’ve committed extra patrols in the rural area by having members patrol one four-hour stint during the day and one during the evening,” said Williams. “We’ve received positive feedback in regards to that, but they don’t happen all the time because of other calls for service that are received.”

Since April, the Salmon Arm detachment, which has 17 regular members as well as five members funded by the province to look after the rural areas, has taken down 10 indoor marijuana grow operations in Tappen and Blind Bay, totaling over 10,000 plants.

Williams said this was made possible only by additional funding for enhanced marijuana investigations.

“We continue to put in business cases each year for the regular member component and support staff for the rural area, but they’ve fallen on deaf ears over the last few years as the province isn’t buying any positions at this time,” said Williams. “Part of the problem is that the RCMP in years gone by didn’t plan well enough to fill the vacancies that we have now within the province, and Regina is trying to put through 2,000 cadets a year, so hopefully in the near future that condition will go away.”

Speaking for Sgt. Troy Beauregard of the Chase detachment, Williams said that despite an increasing influx of tourists and traffic, the detachment is operating with only Beauregard and two members.

”This year, Chase is short their first nations position, they have one member regular position that’s not filled, one member that’s on light duties for the next month and one cadet, so they’re having a difficult time responding to calls for service,” said Williams.

While Sicamous is currently operating at full strength with five members, Harrison said a sixth member has been approved for his independent, provincially contracted detachment, but there is currently no funding for the position.

Harrison said the Sicamous detachment is one of the largest in the area, with much of the jurisdiction not being accessible by land. To deal with off-shore situations, the detachment has a 22-foot all-season vessel that can be utilized anywhere on Shuswap and Mara lakes as a command centre.

This summer, Harrison added, members have been using the vessel to enforce the federal Contraventions Act.

“We’ve laid several charges for things such as operating in the evening with no navigation lights, insufficient life jackets, things of that nature,” said Harrison. “And we’ve also targeted on impaired operation of vessels. The very first one we got was on the July long weekend … it’s a high priority. The reason we’re out there is to save lives.”

Harrison noted that this year the detachment prison is also seeing more stays than in the previous year.

“Last year, for the entire year of 2006, we housed 29 prisoners, most for being drunk in a public place,” said Harrison. “This year, as of July 1, we housed 89… Part of that increase is attributable as well to the availability of guards. We just hired four new guards in April so that’s kind of increased our potential to house some of these individuals and take them off the street before anything more serious happens.”

Because of integration in 2004, Carlson explained, the Vernon detachment works with provincial detachments in Falkland, Lumby, Armstrong and Enderby.

Carlson said the Vernon detachment is always seeking resources to cover servicing required by its partner areas.

”We’re continually seeking additional resources, particularly at Enderby which is the busiest of all our areas,” said Carlson. “Over 12,000 calls for servicing the whole area, and about 3,500 of those are actually in the Enderby area. Since 2003 it’s actually been identified there should be a reserve base of nine members there, but as I say we’re actually at six still. Again, dealing with the province we’ve got a bit of a block.”

When asked by South Shuswap Electoral Area C director Ted Bacigalupo what the board could do to help improve policing in the rural areas, Williams suggested that help from the CSRD would be appreciated in obtaining the needed resources from the province.

“Whenever I’m talking to people, out in the Blind Bay area especially, they want to see more visibility of police, but there’s only so many hours in a day we can do that with only three members in uniform,” said Williams. “The only way of increasing that is with additional resources, but that’s not coming in the near future.”