Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jan 2006
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679

POLICE EYE GAME PLAN TO TACKLE TOP PRIORITIES

Drugs, crime prevention, youth issues, communication with the 
community and police visibility were among the high priorities set 
out by city council during a strategic planning session with RCMP 
members Thursday.

Now it's up to the police to come up with strategies to deal with those issues.

City council met with Supt. Jim Begley and other RCMP officers for 
two and a half hours Thursday to talk about creating a five-year 
vision for policing in Kamloops.

What they came up with was a loose list of priorities, which Begley 
said he'll take and incorporate with comments from a public forum 
held last spring along with points raised at focus groups last month.

The end result, he said, should be a draft strategic plan that will 
go back to city council via the police committee. Specific action 
plans will also follow, but some of them won't be released publicly 
because they will involve police investigations.

"It's realigning the priorities," he said.

Mayor Terry Lake said the strategic planning exercise is also about 
building relationships between the city and the RCMP.

"The solution is working together, engaging the community and working 
with the resources we have," he said.

"I didn't expect to come out of here with a magic bullet."

And there was no magic bullet. But there was a list of council's 
general priorities and an idea that Begley would be able to use that 
to set direction for his detachment.

"For me, it's about setting a five-year course," Begley said.

RCMP statistician Cpl. Sharon McWilliam outlined crime trends in the 
city. In the past five years, there have been rises in violent crimes 
- -- assaults, robberies, sexual assaults; and in disturbances (often 
involving alcohol or drugs), and in drug-related busts. In fact, she 
said, Kamloops saw more seizures in cocaine in 2005 than Prince 
George or the North Okanagan.

Organized crime has also arisen in the city, even resulting in one 
auto-theft investigation that went national, she said.

"None of this is to alarm anybody," Begley cautioned, noting the 
information and numbers that McWilliam gave out were to paint a 
picture of what's going on in the community.

"This is not about resourcing. This is about making the most of what 
we've got."

Coun. Tina Lange said as a downtown business owner, she has seen how 
safety is a perception. People walking along Victoria Street don't 
feel safe when they see panhandlers and riff raff, but they are 
reassured when they see an officer on foot patrol.

Coun. Pat Wallace said while it would be nice to have more officers 
out on foot patrols and responding to stolen bike calls, it isn't 
realistic given the number of RCMP members here.

"We have to take responsibility for ourselves," she said. "If it 
comes to looking after serious crime and visibility, I'll take the 
serious crime."

McWilliam said a lot of property crime is preventable, and a 
partnership with community policing and the media could help get the 
word out on ways to be less vulnerable.

While several people mentioned youth as a priority, defining what the 
police could do was tougher to pin down.

Lange suggested the police, city, schools, health and other 
departments get together to come up with a way of making Kamloops a 
leader in helping youth.

"Let's be the benchmark in Canada for drug prevention for kids," she said.

Lake said he was initially excited about Lange's idea, but after some 
discussion wondered if it might be too big an issue to tackle at the 
local level.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman