More officers sought for future

Roger Knox - Vernon Morning Star Published: January 06, 2011 6:00 PM
One year into his role as Vernon’s top cop and Supt. Reg Burgess is feeling more comfortable with his surroundings.  Burgess wants to continue improving on items and ideas implemented by his predecessor, Steve McVarnock.  “When you step into a place that’s already been improved, you don’t want it to go downhill,” said Burgess, sitting behind the desk of his second-storey office at the Vernon detachment, where there is a great mix of senior officers showing the way for an impressive group of junior police men and women. “I’m feeling comfortable that we’re continuing on the right road.”  One area where the local detachment is doing very well is in crime reduction. According to Burgess, crime is down in the North Okanagan and continually beats the national trend in that statistic.  Reducing crime will be one of the detachment’s top priorities in 2011, priorities that will be set following a set of community consultation meetings in January and February.  Traffic and road safety was the top priority in 2010 and Burgess doesn’t expect that to change in the new year.  “People are still getting killed, people are still driving dangerously,” he said. “It’s a high-profile item that no doubt will still be there.”

What would really help Burgess, and many other police detachments around the province, is more resources.  With the economy improving, Burgess would love to have more officers, and there will be a need, he said, maybe in 2011 but certainly in 2012, for additional staff on the support services side. “That’s where we really need the province to help,” said Burgess. “We also have to look internally as to where we can get those resources.”  More resources would also be needed if the province commits to starting a new correctional facility in his detachment coverage area, something the Village of Lumby has enquired about.  “A new facility, on the political side of things, that’s for the politicians to discuss,” said Burgess. “My only concern is I would ensure officials are aware that increased resources need to go with that. The province or whoever has to ensure those resources would be in place.  “A new correctional facility could easily tie up two regular members to do nothing but liaise with the facility. They would take all queries from agencies, conduct interviews. As long as the resourcing is put into place for that, if the community wants to go with it, that would be the only caveat: give us the bodies.”

One of the big changes made to the local detachment in 2010 was the creation of a new rural department to help meet the needs of rural communities. The change was made in September and Burgess admits there are still a few bugs to be worked out.  But big picture-wise, Burgess said there are now more members in the North Okanagan since the change at any given time than there have ever been before. And that, he said, translates into better rural area coverage, officer safety and allows police the chance to do things, like high-visibility foot patrols, that they couldn’t do before.  “We’re starting to get positive feedback on the changes,” said Burgess. “We still totally understand that communities would love to have their own police officers, that’s ideal and I’d love to be able to provide that. But I’d need a lot more officers to do that.”  For 2011, to keep his comfort level, Burgess will be making sure that everyone is happy with what the Vernon-North Okanagan RCMP detachment is doing.“We’ll be fixing, tweaking, doing communication things that need to be done,” he said. “It’s going to be a good year.”