'We cannot out-police bad public policy,' says Kelowna's top cop

Can't out-police bad policy

Photo: Cindy White

Supt. Chris Goebel addresses a crowd of business people at a forum on crime and disorder in Kelowna on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

The commander of the Kelowna RCMP detachment is not mincing words in his assessment of what he sees as some of the root causes of social disorder in the city.

Supt. Chris Goebel was one of the speakers at a business forum on public safety organized by the City of Kelowna on Tuesday evening.

He thanked the provincial government ending decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use. That experiment will end as of January 31.

What will happen with decriminalization ends?

Goebel said the Kelowna RCMP is retraining officers to deal with the new reality, because many have not operated in a system where arrests can be made for possession.

He said that last year, Kelowna RCMP opened over 60,000 files, 22,000 of which were priority one and priority two calls, dealing with everything from life-threatening situations to break and enters in progress. That meant that priority three calls about property crime and lesser offences often got pushed to the back burner.

“We cannot out-police bad public policy. We cannot arrest our way out of addiction and we cannot social service our way out of chronic criminality,” said Supt. Goebel

“We need a balanced approach that actually works, and the reality on the ground is that years of policy heavily weighted towards harm reduction, without the same scale of effective voluntary treatment, without mandatory treatment pathways for those who will not choose help, has not delivered on public safety.”

He appeared to disagree with some of what he called the “well-intentioned and well-meaning” efforts to address the underlying causes of disorder.

“The outdoor sheltering site where people can stay overnight is one thing, but the services in this community are far more than this community should have, and it creates problems.

“And I appreciate the conversations that I have had with the city, (that they) are very, very receptive to making some changes, some meaningful changes, that I believe are going to positively impact public safety.”

He said the RCMP will be increasing foot and bike patrols as well as targeting specific people and locations responsible for a large volume of criminal activity in the city.

Recently, the president of the BC Association of Chiefs of Police said people will not be arrested for possession of small amounts of drugs after the end of decriminalization on Jan. 31, "unless there are extenuating circumstances."

Andrew Chan, who is also Deputy Chief of the Vancouver Police Department, said police are working closely with the provincial government to develop guidelines on how to handle the end of the three-year pilot program in British Columbia.

He said people should not expect to see "a marked difference in what's happening out on the streets."

Supt. Goebel did not come out and say exactly how Kelowna RCMP would be responding, but he appeared to take a tougher stance than Chan.

“I do not believe that supporting drug use in any capacity, whether it’s in shelters or whether it’s on the street or anything, positively contributes to public safety,” Goebel told the crowd gathered at the Kelowna Community Theatre on Tuesday.

When will Kelowna get involuntary care spaces?

He said he will continue to advocate for people significantly suffering from addiction, who are unable to make good choices, to have sufficient places to go, “that’s not on the street and not in the community.”

BC Minister of State for Community Safety and Integrated Services Terry Yung was also on the panel. He indicated the government is working to open more secure, involuntary care spaces in the Interior, but did not give a timeline.

Mayor Tom Dyas and the RCMP superintendent are both pressing to have spaces opened in Kelowna as soon as possible. While facilities have been announced in Surrey and Maple Ridge, no other locations have been publicly revealed by the provincial government.

One area where police and prosecutors are making headway is through the new Repeat Violent Offending Interventions Initiative (ReVOII).

“When repeat offenders are released quickly and repeatedly without sufficient conditions, without the courts' enforcement of those conditions and without consequences that interrupt the cycle, the outcome is predictable.

“The same people return to the same areas, commit the same offences and the same businesses are victimized again and again,” said Supt. Goebel.

He said under the ReVOII program, there are 45 spots for the Kelowna area, 31 in the Kelowna municipal hub. He said 17 of those 31 offenders are currently in custody.

Kelowna short five to 10 Crown prosecutors

Ensuring offenders are brought to justice also depends on Crown prosecutors. The head of the BC Crown Counsel Association, the union representing Crown prosecutors, said the association has been lobbying for decades to get more staff in Kelowna.

Adam Dalrymple believes that Kelowna needs five to 10 new prosecutors and urged those in attendance to lobby the government to fund the positions.

Dalrymple said the association has filed a grievance in the region that includes Kelowna over the workload that Crown counsel is dealing with.

“We know there’s not an endless pit of money, but it’s time to look objectively at the numbers.

“For example, recently I was told that of the 18 prosecutors that are currently in Kelowna, I understand that two have recently left to other jurisdictions.”

He said he was told there are 255 charge assessments from the Kelowna RCMP that have not yet been assessed by prosecutors.

“We can’t have hundreds of charges sitting in a queue for prosecutors to review,” he said, adding that that erodes public confidence in the justice system.

“When people become disillusioned with crime, they don’t report it,” Dalrymple said.

His comments prompted the regional manager for the BC Prosecution Service, Jessica Patterson, to stand up in the crowd and clarify current staffing pressures.

“As many people know, there’s currently what has been described as a hiring freeze within the province, which is, of course, necessarily creating some delays in hiring. What I can say, however, is that hiring Crown is unfortunately not a panacea to solve the street disorder in Kelowna,” said Patterson.

She pointed out that the federal Crown is responsible for prosecuting many drug offences.

“When Supt. Goebel says they believe they would be unable to get approval if there’s an arrest for a drug offence, that would be an offence under federal jurisdiction and not something that we deal with.

“I think that there are more partners that need to be involved in this discussion,” she added.

Call for government intervention

Dalrymple is calling on the Attorney General, Niki Sharma and the BC government to intervene in the region to ensure that Kelowna gets the Crown prosecutors it needs.

Castanet contacted the office of the Attorney General to ask if funding will be dedicated to hire more prosecutors for Kelowna. The ministry said the BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) operates independently from government and makes its own decisions related to operations within a budget set by the government.

“This independence is a cornerstone of our justice system,” said the ministry in an emailed statement. “Government remains committed to maintaining confidence in the justice system and addressing operational needs to ensure access to justice.

“Since 2024, government has invested $40 million more in the BCPS to ensure they have stable resourcing levels. This reflects an overall budget increase the BCPS has seen year over year, with a 28% increase since 2022.”

Dalrymple hopes there will be more discussions like the one held in Kelowna on Tuesday night. He said that this is the public’s prosecution service and they have a right to answers.

Photo: Cindy White

Adam Dalrymple, president of the BC Crown Counsel Association.