Mayor fears city will be forced to pay for task force

Ron Seymour  The Daily Courier   2011-08-19
Confirmation of continued provincial funding for an anti-gang task force is welcome news for Kelowna Mayor Sharon Shepherd.  But Shepherd expressed some concern Thursday that Victoria may still ask the city to help pay for ongoing operation of the 16-man unit that‘s based in Kelowna. "They haven‘t asked us for money, so far," Shepherd said. "If they did, I would look on it as another form of downloading." "We have a problem with organized crime, but so do other communities up and down the Valley," Shepherd said, adding that the Kelowna-based anti-gang task force‘s area of responsibility covers much of the B.C. Southern Interior. And while Public Safety Minister Shirley Bond said this week that funding for the so-called gangs-and-guns strategy would continue, it wasn‘t made known if it would consist of additional money or represent a re-allocation of resources from other policing endeavors.  "It‘s not clear to us right now where the money is going to come from," Shepherd said. "There could be an impact on other areas." Bond said the province‘s two-year-old anti-gang strategy - which includes hiring additional police officers and creating more cells in provincial prisons - was curbing violence.  "Over 200 organized crime and gang members and associates have been arrested and charged with more than 400 serious offences since we brought in the gangs-and-guns strategy in February 2009," Bond said in a statement.  "Since 2008-09, our government invested B.C.‘s full $53.3 million share of the (federally-supported) Police Officer Recruitment Fund for additional policing positions dedicated to combating gun, gang, and organized crime," Bond said. "I can assure you, the province is committed to the continuing funding of these dedicated resources," she said. 

Kelowna taxpayers cover 90 per cent of the cost of operating the city‘s 146-member RCMP detachment, with the federal government providing the balance.  The total police budget has risen from $14 million in 2006, to just under $20 million this year. In March, RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon said crime in Kelowna was going down in "almost every category," from the peak year of 2006. Total calls for service have fallen about 15 per cent over the past five years, McKinnon said, but he still argues that Kelowna is under-policed for its size. He has said he will be asking for more officers again when council sets the 2012 city budget later this year.