RCMP Insp. Jeff Pelley said having the new crime reduction unit up and running has led to successful arrests in Williams Lake.
“It’s through that constant pressure on problematic residences that we can achieve success,” Pelley told city council and staff during a committee of the whole meeting held Tuesday, May 30 in the Rick Hansen boardroom at city hall.
The team has been in place for four weeks and with the exception of a vacant Sergeant position, which will be filled in the next few months, the detachment is fully staffed for the first time in a long time, Pelley said.
Drugs seized during Sunday, May 28’s bust of a Moxon Place rental home will be tested for fentanyl, Pelley said, noting the person who is being charged in the case is tied to more than 15 charges dating back in October.
Coun. Scott Nelson asked if it was prudent for city council to develop a policy on the civil forfeiture of homes or vehicles involved with crime.
Pelley said the RCMP are looking at one problematic residence in the community and putting it forward for civil forfeiture.
Civil forfeiture applications go through the policing branch when the property does not meet the threshold for criminal forfeiture, he added.
“I think there are absolutely cases where that is warranted, but I think each one needs to be assessed on a basis such as the number of calls and the type of calls, if there’s violence and how the asset is being utilized. It is something that we are exploring and I am looking forward to see what happens on the application we’ve put forward on a separate residence.”
Nelson said it would be a “fantastic” opportunity to take money from a forfeiture and put it back into community policing.
During the meeting, Pelley provided council with an update on crime statistics, pointing out that break and enters to businesses is substantially up.
He submitted a written report to council as seen here.
Williams Lake RCMP Insp. Jeff Pelleys report to city council by WL Tribune on Scribd
Crime reduction unit members are also working with the top six of the city’s 12 prolific offenders.
Three of them are presently in jail.
“Having the crime reduction unit that can fully concentrate on these individuals, separate from what we’ve been doing for a number of years where it’s uniformed officers focusing on them when they can in addition to calls and other proactive projects,” Pelley said.
When Coun. Craig Smith asked if there are always going to be 12 prolific offenders on the list, Pelley said that’s the number the Williams Lake RCMP have allotted.
“When individuals go into custody for a few weeks or a month, we still keep them on. If all of a sudden they go to jail for a year we will pull them to a monitoring list and isolate on another prolific offender.”
There are “priority” offenders in some cases, for example if there is a rash of offences.
The crime reduction unit is also developing a program to work with the top three social chronic people who are in and out of RCMP cells constantly.
“Often we are picking them up for their own safety and incarcerating them and then letting them go so we want to work with social agencies to try and get them headed in a positive direction,” Pelley said. “Often we are the sobering facility when they cannot care for themselves.”
The RCMP have a “dramatic” list of individuals but are going to look at top three and try and see what works.
One of the recently appointed reserve constables, Cst. Gordon Rutherford has transferred to Comox while Cst. Rick Meever and Cst. John Dryden are remaining in the area.
“When we have gaps we can pull the reserve constables in immediately, rather than having our regular members working extended shifts,” Pelley said.
Pelley was recently at a conference where the topic of auxiliary police officers was discussed and said he is hoping to have an answer by July about when the auxiliaries can be in uniform and assist RCMP officers with general duties.
“Most of our auxiliaries that are volunteers here are excited because they just don’t want to be doing community policing events,” he added. “They will have definitive uniforms that have ‘peace officer’ on them and they will be at our side on the Friday and Saturday nights.”
In anticipation of Stampede weekend, Pelley said the RCMP’s operational plan will be similar to the last two years.
“We will have a restriction that officers don’t book off that weekend so we have officers on the street and we can still focus on violent offenders,” Pelley said.