Kelowna’s crime task force to get to work in July

In the next month, Kelowna’s crime task force will start coming up with ideas on how to improve community safety.

Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas said he’s looking forward to generating ideas and recommendations that will ultimately make the community stronger.

“It’s a grouping of individuals within the community, who have experience in a number of different fields, gathering their thoughts on things, and sometimes it’s just little things that we can do to make this community safer,” he said.

How that may manifest, he said, could be through a myriad of avenues, one of which may be in the area of development.

1:44 Two people dead in Kelowna neighbourhood, police investigating

“How is a development completed, (while) being aware of the safety aspect of it,” he asked. “That’s something that we’ve had serious discussions about … there have been things that we have already done in the downtown to address that but you will see more of those coming up in the future just to help make our community safer.”

Ultimately, the task force will review relevant existing programs and services locally and in other relevant jurisdictions; identify positive actions underway, gaps, challenges and issues within the community; report back to council with a summary of what was learned through the community review process; and develop actionable recommendations related to crime and sense of safety in our community, drawing from the experiences of the members of the task force.

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The task force has 13 members that represent relevant expertise and sector representation. The Mayor will serve as chairperson. The task force will be in place for a 12-month term, with the ability to extend, and will provide quarterly updates to council.

The members are Karen Beaubier,  Mark Burley, Ali Butler, Jane Cartwright, Ken Doige, Jeff Meyers, Dan Price, Carmen Remple, Micki Ruth, Laura Thurnheer, Tom Dyas, Ron Cannan and Darren Caul.

Last year, the greater Kelowna area was listed in the Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index as having a rate of 11,112 per 100,000 residents. It was the highest rate in the country, and the only rate reaching into five digits. The second highest rating, looking at that metric, was the Lethbridge, Alta., area at 9,836 per 100,000.

RCMP have been reminding people this year that the way the index is tallied doesn’t paint an accurate picture of Kelowna.