South Okanagan RCMP Supt. Brian Hunter addresses regional crime stats for third quarter

Photo: Contributed

Supt. Brian Hunter at Thursday's RDOS meeting.

South Okanagan RCMP Supt. Brian Hunter and detachment commanders from around the region gave their quarterly update on crime statistics to the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen board Thursday morning, highlighting some areas of concern. 

Hunter began by speaking specifically to the Penticton region, pointing to a 17 per cent uptick in assaults year over year for the period of July to September. 

"That was attributed and continues to be attributed to the drug subculture in Penticton,” Hunter said. “Bear spray was a common weapon they were using. Definitely concerning, but I need to stress that most of those knew each other.” 

Hunter added that they have seen a sharp rise in property crime in both the rural and urban areas of Penticton iin the last four weeks, specifically of bikes and e-bikes, though they have managed to recover some. 

"It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see somebody that can’t afford a $12,000 bike around town,” Hunter said. 

He said he has plans to work on encouraging people to register their bikes, and working with local businesses on safe lockup spots for bikes around town, as part of an ongoing push mirrored by Penticton council to make the city bike-friendly. 

Another area of concern Hunter has spoken to in the past is repeat offenders increasingly being released by the court system rather than remanded, part of COVID-19 protocols the justice system has leaned on rather than overcrowd jails. 

“It’s very difficult to have people remanded,” Hunter said.

“Not that long ago we arrested a client with a stolen vehicle, in a stolen vehicle, with stolen property, with drugs, firearms, a prolific offender ... but the individual was released the next day. So that’s just part of the recidivism we have to deal with, it can be a little bit frustrating.“

And a final bone of contention for Hunter, which several RDOS board members commented on and asked about with respect to their various communities, is auto theft and theft of property from vehicles.

Most detachments saw an increase in one or both of those instances, a problem Hunter and his detachment commanders explained almost always stems from people leaving their cars unlocked, spare keys in the car and valuables in plain sight. 

“It's the bane of my existence. This is not victim blaming, we need to do a better job of locking our vehicles and removing all valuables,” Hunter said.

“It’s very, very frustrating, there’s a limited number of police resources out there and we would be better served for crimes that are occurring, not the ones that can be prevented."

Hunter also spoke to the ongoing rollout of online crime reporting options at South Okanagan detachments. He said that so far, criteria is very narrow for what crimes can be reported virtually, but that will expand. Penticton in particular has had high numbers of people using the online service. 

"The community realizes how stretched we are for community resources and they are really utilizing it,” Hunter said.