Penticton’s top Mountie said his officers are stressed, overworked and under-resourced due to high call volumes.
Supt. Brian Hunter points to the 2019 Police Resources in British Columbia document that shows Penticton’s criminal caseload per officer is 140 per cent higher than the provincial average.
The provincial case load average for RCMP detachments policing a population over 15,000 is 71. Penticton’s case load is 170.
2020 data is not available.
“It certainly indicates that the caseload here for our officers in Penticton is very, very high, and what occurs when you have a high caseload is we are just responding from call to call to call,” Hunter told Global News on Wednesday.
“There is a lot of stress on the members; we have a lot of burnout at the detachment.”
Reports of crime were down nine per cent last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he told mayor and council on Tuesday, falling from 7,809 calls for service to 7,129.
But the demand on officers’ time is still outpacing available resources.
Hunter said on busy days, officers are unable to respond to low-priority calls, and there is no extra time for proactive enforcement, surveillance, or patrols.
“Our membership here at the detachment, their wellness is not going to fall on the backs of the fact that we don’t have enough resources here to deal with all of our calls for service, so we prioritize those calls,” he said.
Council has budgeted for two more police officers, but Hunter said the city needs more boots on the ground.
Hunter said property crime accounts for about 60 per cent of the detachment’s total call volume. He adds Penticton is not a violent community.
Break-and-enters and thefts, he said, are being fuelled by addiction and mental health issues.
“This is a medical crisis that a lot of these individuals are facing and they need help.”
A recently-released crime heat map shows the city’s hot spots, which include areas around low-barrier shelters.
“Buildings and structures don’t cause crime, humans do, and if you have an environment with individuals in our community that are unwell, addicted, suffering and they are feeding those addictions with no supports, you’re going to have crime,” Hunter said.
Reducing crime is a top priority of the Penticton South Okanagan-Similkameen detachment, he said.
The detachment is addressing the revolving door of justice by launching a prolific offender management unit.
It will arm judges with the evidence they need to keep people in custody longer or impose tougher sentences.
“It gives the full story that we’ve given them every opportunity to change their behaviours,” Hunter said.
“This would allow the judiciary to make a decision regarding remanding or not and potentially a sentence that suits the crime that these prolific offenders are committing.”
Hunter noted the initiative will help manage the problem, but won’t fix it.
“If I had an ultimate solution for the community, what do I need as the chief of police? What I need is support for these folks, that treatment, and rehabilitation.”
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