Times-Chronicle Staff
The Town of Oliver is getting additional police officers under a new municipal agreement.
After nearly a decade of lobbying the provincial government for two additional officers, the Town’s voice has been heard.
It is entering into a Municipal Police Unit Agreement (MPUA) that increases the strength of the Oliver RCMP detachment by two and one-quarter members.
Currently, the detachment is considered a provincial unit and has a total authorized strength of 10 and three-quarter members to serve Oliver, the Osoyoos Indian Band and the rural area.
The new municipal unit will contain six regular members and the provincial RCMP unit will have seven regular members. This will increase membership from 10.75 to 13 members overall for the Oliver detachment.
Oliver Mayor Martin Johansen said this is welcome news.
“These additional resources will serve to provide a better response to calls for service and support an increase in proactive policing initiatives,” he said.
Johansen noted the hiring of additional members has been an ongoing priority request for several years.
Oliver RCMP Sgt. Don Wrigglesworth said he couldn’t comment at this time, noting this is an agreement between the town and the province.
The Town’s population has exceeded 5,000 which means it will assume responsibility for providing municipal police services starting April 1. This also means it must start paying 70 per cent of policing costs as opposed to 30 per cent.
The Town previously implemented a hefty nine per cent tax increases to build the tax requisition to support the estimated costs of $900,000-plus to pay for the municipal police service starting this year.
In 2018 town council set some strategic priorities and has implemented a number of them including the establishment of a Community Safety & Crime Prevention Committee, in addition to a South Okanagan Situation Table to assist vulnerable people in crisis.
The Town has also supported the purchase of a new Crime Watch vehicle.
