By Tyler Olsen - Vernon Morning Star - July 08, 2008
The heat is on – and not just on valley beaches, roads and ball fields. With summer kicking into high gear, the RCMP are launching their summer enforcement program, with a three-member unit hitting city streets on bikes, on foot and in vehicles. “They concentrate predominantly in and around the downtown core,” said RCMP spokesman Gord Molendyk. The unit aims to disrupt criminal activity with a strong presence in hot spots around the area. “We would like them to look at trouble spots, so they can move to beaches – anywhere there is a concentration of people,” said Molendyk. The unit made seven arrests in its four days of operation. And already the message has gotten out that RCMP are cracking down. One woman even heard the police “were arresting everybody downtown,” according to the unit’s head Const. Kevin Cyr. “In a matter of four days word had gotten out the heat was on,” he said. Molendyk said the unit’s focus on ground-level police work and community interaction is key. “It puts the officers very much in contact with the public,” he said. “A lot of the businesses in the downtown appreciate the fact these individuals are on bikes, they can stop, they’re in the back alleys and the trouble spots.”Among the persons taken into custody, a 30-year-old man with 56 previous convictions was arrested for the possession of narcotics and a 25-year-old man with a similar file and Canada-wide warrant was arrested when he got off a bus from Calgary. “This individual is currently serving a five-year federal sentence for a variety of offences including aggravated assault,” said Molendyk. A warrant was issued after the man’s parole had been revoked.
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