911 dispatch concerns getting serious attention from RCMP (PENTICTON)

By JOHN MOORHOUSE Friday, September 28, 2007 Penticton Herald

One of the top RCMP officials in B.C. will be coming to Penticton next week to discuss 911 dispatch concerns with city council. Mayor Jake Kimberley said Chief Superintendent Robert Morrison has agreed to the meeting, although an exact date for the visit has not yet been confirmed. Council met briefly with officials at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver on Thursday when they were informed of the upcoming visit. Morrison is head of the RCMP’s operations strategy branch for the Pacific Region. Kimberley said the chief superintendent’s visit bodes well for council’s position. "It shows that we’ve made an impression upon them that we’re extremely upset with the dispatching services -- and they’re going to put some serious attention to it," he said. "Hopefully we won’t have to go through this again." Council’s ire was raised after it took the 911 dispatch centre in Kelowna more than four hours to alert Penticton RCMP of a vandalism complaint at the SS Okanagan earlier this month -- even though a witness followed the two suspects while in direct contact with a 911 dispatcher.

Kimberley noted this is the second time council has discussed 911 dispatching problems with the RCMP. Last year, an incident involving a drunk driver running stop signs and driving erratically also spawned a police investigation into how the incident was handled. The RCMP later promised to improve the response time and better educate 911 dispatchers in Kelowna about Penticton area neighbourhoods, Kimberley said. "Of course, this latest thing has caused all that to come back to the forefront again," he said. The mayor said council will likely reiterate its previous message -- either improve the 911 service in Kelowna or revert to Penticton-based police dispatchers. Currently only local 911 fire calls are dispatched out of Penticton. Ambulance calls are forwarded to Kamloops. Even if it’s determined to cost more, Kimberley said such a move could be worth considering. "What does safety cost? What does a life cost? That’s the issue for me -- you don’t put a price tag on lives," he said. The mayor said last year’s incident with the drunk driver could have easily resulted in injuries, and even the recent vandalism spree at the SS Okanagan could have been dangerous for the woman following the suspects. Two 18-year-old males were apprehended last week in connection with the incident. They are to appear in court on Nov. 19.