Penticton RCMP said they've seen success from enhanced efforts addressing public safety across the community.

At Tuesday's meeting, the City of Penticton Council heard from Supt. Beth McAndie and the General Manager of Public Safety and Partnerships, Julie Czeck, as they ran through the latest statistics from the first quarter of 2025.

The presentation is part of police and bylaw's standard quarterly update, which also highlights programs seeing success in the area.

Shelter helps lower calls

Czeck said bylaw received 740 calls for service, marking a 42 per cent decline from the same period this time last year.

"This reduction can be attributed to several key changes, including the introduction of proactive patrols," she said, noting more than 5,000 proactive patrols were conducted by officers in "hotspot areas."

Czeck said the drop in calls is also due to the success of a new model of the temporary winter shelter, which operated 24/7 this past season and offered enhanced services.

The shelter, which is located at 441 Dawson Avenue, was given a green light by council in March to continue operating 24/7 year-round through April 2026, rather than its previously intended closing date of March 31.

City staff, who followed the full-service shelter closely during the winter, found that it had been doing good work keeping people off the street and, in some cases, helping them get services and permanent housing.

Czeck echoed this sentiment.

"This has significantly reduced the interactions that would historically result in bylaw enforcement as individuals weren't discharged into the community every morning," she said.

During the cold snap, 100 More Homes, the RCMP, Bylaw and Interior Health collaborated to distribute survival kits to those who were unable to seek indoor shelter.

"Despite addition of the 40 bed shelter, there are still approximately between 30 and 50 individuals that have been sheltering outdoors," Czeck said.

As the weather improves, Czeck said they expect the number of individuals outside to grow.

"This information is also crucial for ongoing collaboration with provincial partners to develop long term solutions, particularly for the Fairview encampment, which presents environmental and safety concerns."

The City of Penticton and the snpink’tn (Penticton) Indian Band issued a statement on Tuesday, noting that they were still working on addressing a growing encampment in the community, which is technically outside their jurisdiction.

A draft plan of the community safety and well being plan will be presented to the Public Safety Advisory Committee at the May 21 meeting.

RCMP sees overall drop

Penticton RCMP said they also noted a drop in calls for service — 3,261 this year compared to 3,806 for the same period last year, which is a 14 per cent reduction.

McAndie said she equates this to having those roughly 40 individuals housed in the community.

"We typically receive these calls for service from local businesses and security providers and citizens trying to access some of our local businesses. So this really captures and consistently what I've seen during my tenure here as the OIC (Officer in Charge) as unwanted persons and check well beings are the primary two calls for service daily for our officers," she added.

Another noticeable drop in calls is for auto theft, which McAndie said is likely attributed to the arrests of several active auto thieves in late 2024. Those individuals remain in custody.

"This goes to show that the work our crime reduction unit is doing in repeat offender management and repeat violent offender management is absolutely making an impact," she said.

In violent crime, the most significantly concerning number McAndie said was the increase of 74 per cent in intimate partner violence.

In RCMP's meeting with the South Okanagan Women In Need Society (SOWINS), it was pointed out there was an "inordinate decrease" in intimate partner violence reports during the first quarter of 2024, and that the number for 2025 does match with previous year averages.

"We will continue to communicate with our partner. We do this on a monthly basis, just to identify those people that could be designated highest risk to reoffend as it relates to intimate partner violence," McAndie said.

She added that police want to ensure there are no gaps that they are missing as it relates to domestic violence.

Looking at the five year average, McAndie said there is five year low for Q1 of 2025 for assault with a weapon causing bodily harm, auto theft, bike theft, mischief to property, theft, shoplifting and theft from a vehicle.

Property crime for 2025 is down 44 per cent compared to the five year average and violent crime for Q1 is down 1 per cent to the compared to the five year average.

Nurse-Cop pair up helps

It has been one year since the inception of the Integrated Crisis Response Team (ICRT) in Penticton, and McAndie said she will continue to report out the good work that this team has been contributing.

The RCMP had 392 calls for service where one component of that file was related to someone experiencing a mental health crisis.

"Which means that our integrated response team could be dispatched to support the officers responding, and that file could transition over to them, or they could just get connected and provide service to that person experiencing that crisis," McAndie said.

The ICRT, which is made of up of two officers and three nurses, took the lead in 137 files and assisted in 51.

McAndie said there continues to be collaboration and communication between the ICRT and other Interior Health teams, and a round table with the Ministry for Children and Family Development.

The top cop shared, as an example, that the ICRT was able to help a 22 year old male with complex mental health and addictions issues.

He was known for generating numerous police files over the past two years due to erratic and often violent behaviour in the public.

"His behaviour continued to escalate and eventually resulted in a violent interaction with police, requiring several members to physically restrain him. Our integrated crisis response team became involved, going so far as to transport a psychiatrist from the hospital to meet with this individual and community on more than one occasion," McAndie said.

The male was placed on an oral medication program, and once no adverse effects were noted, was placed on a long term acting injection starting in January.

"Despite his continued struggle with substance abuse, he has remained lucid, remains in the community housed and has virtually had zero contacts with police," McAndie added.

"This is a huge win."

Fostering community support

City staff continue to work on the feasibility of an integrated services centre, which Czeck said has seen several community partners show interest to co-locate and attach existing services together.

A news youth liaison program has been started in partnership with Foundry.

McAndie said various community support groups are working to "collaboratively address the needs of at risk youth as we head into the summer."

Both Princess Margaret and Penticton High held panels with the RCMP ICRT on homelessness and addictions, also bringing the dog services team.

Officers are working with Community Policing Team to continue to create presentations and programs for students in relation to online safety, consent and online exploitation.

"Our kids are our greatest investment, and we will continue to provide as much training and education so as they go out into the world and protect themselves," McAndie said.

RCMP are preparing for seasonal policing, with an uptick expected in calls for service and requests for support with the summer season.

McAndie said they expect to see a significant increase in population.

"We attributed this to our current political climate with the U.S. and the desire likely to have people traveling more within the province and in the country and really taking advantage of all we have to offer."

There will be boat safety and patrols out on the lakes as usual, enhanced enforcement through provincial support units from the Lower Mainland and the integrated municipal provincial auto crime team.

Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield commended the RCMP and Bylaw on their work.

"I think a lot of the work that's been going on over the past two or three years is paying off and and I think that we're finally seeing some of the better scenarios out there as a result of all those efforts," he said.

The full breakdown of the 2025 Q1 statistics can be found in the council agenda, starting on page 191.