There’s a new top cop at the helm of the Penticton South Okanagan Similkameen RCMP detachment.
More than five months after it was announced that Supt. Brian Hunter would be taking the reins from his predecessor, Ted De Jager, he’s now getting to work.
“I’ve been one week on the job here and I’m really looking forward to getting to know the community,” Hunter said while meeting local media on Wednesday.
Hunter said Penticton’s crime problem is fueled by addiction and complex mental health issues.
“Penticton certainly has a lot of property crime, one of the highest per capita in the province, so my job is twofold: To actively investigate those crimes, identify our chronic offenders, and hold them to account through the court system,” he said.
“No one is saying just because it’s an addiction, just because there’s mental health issues, we’re not going to deal with it. We’re going to deal with it, you betcha we’re going to deal with it to the best that we can with the laws and authority we have.”
Hunter, who formerly served as the Officer in Charge of the Port Alberni RCMP detachment, said his goal is to reduce the city’s crime rate.
“We have a lot of work on our plate here, but my goal is to get that crime rate down, in collaboration with community partners,” he said.
Statistics from 2018, recently released by B.C.’s ministry of public safety and solicitor general and the most up-to date publicly available, show Penticton Mounties are faced with the highest case load per officer of any B.C. municipality over 15,000 policed by RCMP.
“We need to support that frontline, which also comes with a crime reduction strategy, and identifying those chronic offenders and holding them to account,” Hunter said.
His predecessor, De Jager, was often criticized by some residents and business owners who felt police weren’t cracking down on vagrancy, loitering and property crime in the downtown core, especially during the busy tourism season.
Hunter wouldn’t say whether or not he will be tougher on crime than De Jager.
“To take a tougher stance, I think that would be talking negatively about superintendent Ted De Jager. I will say this: I am tough on crime. I’ll leave it at that,” he said.
Donny van Dyk, Penticton’s chief administrative officer, welcomed Hunter to town.
“We are excited to have someone who is front-line oriented, action oriented,” he said.
He said tackling crime is also a top priority for city hall.
“It is something council has identified as their top priority, so I do anticipate a continual willingness from council to invest in our frontline policing resources,” van Dyk said.
Hunter added he will support regional commanders in their staffing requests, if evidence warrants it.
For example, the Oliver RCMP detachment has requested two additional police officers to handle an increase in files, in part, due to the opening of the Okanagan Correctional Centre (OCC) near the small community.
“I will be supporting that if the metrics are there and that’s certainly something I have to look at,” he said.
Hunter has 26 years’ experience as a police officer.