After five years as RCMP superintendent in Prince George, B.C., Shaun Wright is moving on.
As he gets ready for the next steps, Wright is not shy about commenting on the challenges policing has brought him.
“By far, the biggest thing that I’ve had to navigate was decriminalization, which lasted for a year, a little over a year, which was definitely one of the biggest public policy disasters, in my personal opinion, that has befallen this city,” he said.
Save Our Streets advocate Jess Ketchum says Prince George has been hit hard, but so have many other municipalities.
“Their downtown core is hollowing out. You have downtowns becoming ghost towns,” he said.
B.C.’s Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth was not made available for an interview on Monday to discuss Wright’s comments.
Wright said his job is to keep the community safe, not to design the policy intended to do the same.
In April, the B.C. government moved to ban drug use in all public spaces, including parks and hospitals, as part of a major overhaul of its drug decriminalization pilot project.
The move came amid a raging debate over the province’s approach to the ongoing deadly toxic drug crisis, including decriminalization and “safe supply.”
Under the changes, police will be able to take action against anyone using illicit drugs in public places ranging from transit to restaurants to beaches.
– with files from Simon Little