RCMP Supt. unable to give definitive reason for uptick in Rutland crime

Photo: Nicholas Johansen/file

RCMP Supt. Kara Triance

Kelowna's top cop says she can not definitely conclude why crime in Rutland has taken a sharp upward turn over the past nine months.

During her quarterly report to city council, Supt. Kara Triance indicated crime in Rutland has climbed 27.5 per cent over the first eight months of the year compared with 2022 while crime in the downtown core has fallen 22.3 per cent over the same time.

She attributed the drop in crime downtown, in part, to enhanced visibility and targeted hotspot enforcement.

However, when asked by Mayor Tom Dyas if the reason for the uptick may be impacted by the addition of the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Assistance office in Rutland she was non-committal.

In response she said a new system of collecting data specifically for the Rutland area was created a year ago and she was not ready to make any specific determinations from it.

"Our data is not as refined as I would like it to be over a five year period but what I can tell you is from initial glances we are seeing calls for service as it relates to social disorder, trespassing, disturbances," she responded.

"Those aligned with our ministries of health and addictions as well as homelessness and we continue to prioritize those.

"I wish I could stand before you and say cause and effect and the correlation of the data but I am not prepared to conclusively give you an opinion on that matter."

In response to the uptick Triance says she has transitioned some of the downtown resources to the the Rutland area.

The increase, she says, are related to an increase in homelessness associated with social disorder, open drug use, mental health, occupations of parks and the subsequent impact to local businesses and the surrounding community.

However, she tempered the figures by emphasizing crime data in "quite imperfect."

"Many factors driving this data changes up and down and, in particular, changes in police deployment activities as we shift into those areas, changes in public reporting, education and media are going to shift the data we are seeing.

"We need to be aware the imperfect nature of measuring calls for service data is the best we have at this point."

Using the figures available, Triance says the RCMP are working on a number of initiatives in the Rutland area including high visibility patrols, shifting traffic units into the area, working with businesses and the Uptown Rutland Business Association as well as working with analysts to identify repeat offenders.