Filling the new detachment

Photo: Wayne Moore

RCMP Supt. Brent Mundle addresses city council.

Activity is starting to hum inside the RCMP's new $48 million Clement Avenue detachment.

For the past few weeks, furniture and material resources were moved inside. Monday was the first time members began relocating from the outdated digs on Doyle Avenue.

"A number of people were packing up and moving out today," said Supt. Brent Mundle during his quarterly address to city council.

"Our general duty patrol function will be the last group of individuals remaining at the (Doyle) detachment. They'll be making that transition around June 15."

The new detachment will be fully functional and operational June 15.

The RCMP will officially say goodbye to the old, and hello to the new during a ceremony June 27.

Mundle says the ceremony will include a flag lowering at the Doyle detachment, and a march by several members and municipal staff to the new detachment where the flag will be raised.

"It's going to be a great enhancement to the police services here in the community, especially having all of our units working under one roof."

As for staffing inside the new building, Mundle says the detachment is currently running at about a 19.1 per cent vacancy rate, which he says is one of their better numbers over the recent number of months.

Those numbers include members off on sick, or injury leave, or positions not yet filled through transfers or retirements.

Across the country there is an organizational shortfall when taking the number of retirements and losses compared with the number of new recruits coming through Depot in Regina.

"Next year at Depot, their intent is to increase the number of troops going through to try and address some of the resource shortages," he said.

The Kelowna detachment has received six new members budgeted for over the past 18 months.

Mundle says one of those officers was assigned to the bike patrol, one to the new mental health unit, while the other four were placed into a new patrol which operates during peak daytime hours to ensure a quicker response time to calls for service.