Ex-chief calls for backup

But retired Supt. Bill McKinnon says more officers won’t solve all of Kelowna’s social ills

Kelowna needs more police to tackle issues like the opioid drug crisis, homelessness, and downtown disorder, retired RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon says.

The local detachment is supposed to be staffed with 188 members, but it was short as many as 30 officers this past summer for a variety of reasons, McKinnon said Monday.

“I’m not going to get into the number of new officers that there needs to be, but there needs to be more,” McKinnon told city councillors. “There are legitimate safety concerns (in downtown Kelowna) at this time.”

Acting city manager Joe Creron told council the 2019 municipal budget, to be unveiled next month, would include proposals for hiring more police.

“We have had lengthy discussions about more RCMP officers,” Creron said. “We’re trying to figure that out with minimal taxation impact.”

While he was clear in calling for additional RCMP members, McKinnon also said enforcement would not on its own be the solution to downtown problems.

There should be greater co-operation and collaboration between the city and other agencies such as B.C. Housing, Interior Health and business associations to address social concerns, McKinnon said.

But the city should take the lead in such discussions, he said, because Kelowna as a community stands to benefit in terms of safer streets, healthier individuals, and economic viability. “You own it,” McKinnon told councillors. McKinnon also said the city should continue to lobby for the return of the auxiliary constable program, which sees citizen volunteers with some training work alongside regular RCMP members.

The program is currently in abeyance nationwide at the order of the federal government.

In 2011, when it was active in Kelowna, the auxiliary force had about 65 members. “The program is not operating today and you’re losing over 11,000 hours of free policing that we had back in 2011,” McKinnon said.

It’s believed the provincial government is soon to approve a new version of the auxiliary program, pending the resolution of some operational issues, McKinnon said. “To my understanding it’s hung up with the province right now because they can’t decide what kind of uniform an auxiliary constable should be wearing.”

On the other hand, McKinnon said the city should not expect its bylaw officers to act in a policing capacity. Bylaw officers have no authority to deal with criminal matters, he said, and they aren’t trained to deal with violent or dangerous situations.

Another recommendation in McKinnon’s report called for a revival of the community court system, which last operated in Kelowna in 2012.

An alternative to traditional courts, community courts focus on helping drug-involved or otherwise challenged individuals connect with the programs and services that may be of benefit to them.

He also said the city should have more say over the location of supportive housing complexes, like the ones now being developed by B.C. Housing to help homeless and drug-involved individuals.

“It can’t be just BC Housing saying this where the shelter’s going to go, and that’s the end of it,” McKinnon said.

Several councillors agreed the city’s Journey Home anti-homelessness strategy, in which the first priority is to get people into stable and secure housing, is the right long-term approach in dealing with the kind of issues causing concern in the community.

“Until we get them housed, they can’t receive the treatment necessary,” Coun. Gail Given said. “We can arrest them all we want, but it’s basically a waste of time because they’re not going to receive sentencing (from the courts) anything beyond treating it as an illness.

“(Housing first) is actually the path to success, not arresting somebody with a needle in their arm on the street,” Given said.

Council will get a report at a later date outlining how McKinnon’s suggestions could be put into action.