Times-Chronicle

The South Okanagan’s officer in charge says he is supportive of the now-international movement to defund police — specifically seeing more incorporation of social and mental health services.

“I think all police officers are supportive of that, provided everyone knows and is on the same page on what defunding the police means,” said Supt. Brian Hunter at the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) Aug. 6 meeting. “For example the City of Penticton has, let’s call it a $10 million budget for policing. It doesn’t mean axing that $10 million. In fact, we know we could probably use a few more dollars in there to fund frontline policing.”

Defunding the police is “about a largely unfunded envelope that we have in society right now of assisting our vulnerable clients,” Hunter said, such as those with addiction or mental health issues.

“Defunding” means properly funding treatment, rehabilitation, supporting services for vulnerable people according to Hunter.

“Policing is very, very expensive and if there are functions or duties or responsibilities in our community where you truly do not need a gun and a badge to do that duty, why are the police doing it? I’m a big proponent of civilianizing a lot of our duties that we can at the detachment.”

The South Okanagan RCMP are aiming to have a psychiatric nurse or mental health professional join officers on “wellness checks,” which have gained notoriety nationally.

“The ultimate goal is we would like to, when we attend these calls, have a subject matter expert in mental health join us on these calls. It’s never going to be just a mental health worker, these are potentially very, very violent situations,” Hunter said.

Eventually, properly funding treatment and supportive services for vulnerable populations would lead to not needing as many frontline police officers in the future, Hunter said.

“If we start funding that and getting into the root of the issues then certainly down the road over time you may not need as many police officers. I can even hazard to say you will not need as many police officers,” Hunter said. “We are the catch-all. anything where there is a gap out there, it’s the police, we deal with it. ”

Crime trending downward in South Okanagan

The Town of Oliver has the third highest case load per officer out of the communities served by the RCMP in the province, but crime in most categories is trending downward compared to the same three-month period in 2019.

“Certainly the pandemic has had an effect,” Hunter said. “Multiple reasons for that. Routines have changed in people’s lives, people are at home more often than they would have been, but I think one of the biggest factors for us is those CERB payments.”

Many vulnerable people suffering through addictions and mental health issues have received the federal relief funding, likely leading to the dip in property crime, Hunter said.

“So a lot of these folks find themselves with a lot of money in their pockets negating the need to commit property crime to feed their addictions, so that’s a factor as well,” Hunter said.

Total calls for service from April to June were down 25 per cent in Oliver compared to the same time last year, with the top call for service being traffic incidents (68 total during the three month period).

Property crime in Oliver is down compared to the same time last year, with auto theft down 54 per cent during the three-month period.  Break and enters of are down an average of 77 per cent across all categories (business, residence and other). However, police responded to 45 incidents of mischief to property, up 80 per cent from he same time last year with 45 total cases from April to June 2020. Incidents of fraud in Oliver have increased over 2019 numbers, with 34 case files so far in 2020 compared to 19 at this point last year.

Total calls for service are up 16 per cent in Osoyoos for a total of 769 in from April to June. The top call for service during the three-month period was marine incidents, with police responding to 84 calls. The second highest call for service in Osoyoos was abandoned 911 calls with a total of 74.

There were no bicycle thefts reported in Oliver or Osoyoos from April to June 2020.

Crime is down in almost every category in Penticton compared to the same period in 2019, except for theft from vehicles, up four per cent from the same period last year (234 total).

Source: RCMP

Source: RCMP

Source: RCMP