Top cop says police can't arrest people for using drugs, can only ask them to 'move along'

Photo: Castanet Staff

Don’t expect to see people being arrested or charged for using drugs openly on Kamloops streets.

That's the message from the city’s top cop in response to an open letter penned last month by the North Shore Business Improvement Association.

“We’re not able to enforce or charge people for minor possession — it just doesn’t happen,” RCMP Supt. Syd Lecky said Thursday while addressing the city’s community safety committee, where he was asked about the May 12 letter.

“Even though it’s not been decriminalized, that hasn’t happened in our city for quite some time — and public prosecutions will not support that.”

The best police can typically do, Lecky said, is to ask someone to leave.

“There’s not a lot we can do other than ask people to move along, for the most part,” he said.

“At the end of the day, the perception of the public is that we’re going to arrest people for using drugs or arrest people for simple possession. It’s not going to happen — it’s not happening anywhere in this province.”

Open drug use has become much more prevalent on city streets in recent months, visible at almost any time of day in the city's downtown core and on the North Shore. The issue is the subject of regular debate on local social media groups and police, as well as city officials, have said they receive plenty of complaints on the topic.

The NSBIA letter detailed “out-of-control criminality” in the city and described Kamloops as being in a “state of siege.” It described the owner of a North Shore restaurant, Jamaican Kitchen, having his business burglarized and then being aggressively dismissed by a potential suspect, told “We own the streets, so f—k off.”

Lecky said police often hear a similar defiant message on city streets — and he said it is taking a toll on officers.

“I feel for those [business owners] and, in some way, we feel the same way,” he said.

“We face the same abuse of, ‘We own the streets.’ It’s demoralizing for our folks that have to face this on a daily basis.”

According to Lecky, the solution is going to require a collaborative approach.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, homelessness is not illegal,” he said.

“It’s a social challenge that we’ve got, as is our mental-health challenge and our addictions challenge.”