At a Council Meeting on Monday, May 8 Detachment Commander at the Kimberley RCMP, Sgt. Chris Newel, updated Council and community members with regards to the 1st Quarter RCMP Report and spoke to the illegality of dispensaries.
Councillor Albert Hoglund addressed Newel with concerns about the RCMP after hours and a recent comment on Facebook.
“There was a break and enter in Kimberley a while back that happened after hours, and there was a Facebook comment about the RCMP in Kimberley and it sort of upset me because one of the comments was, ‘you guys only work day shift’. I was just wondering if you could explain to the people what happens when the constables go home and their day is finished?” asked Hoglund.
Newel responded by saying, “I did see that comment, I am aware of what took place, and I am disappointed that the person never contacted me. I never had a call from one person to ask me the circumstances or the other side of the story.
“We police the majority of the day full time and we are on call for a short period of time in the morning, so it does create a bit of a longer response time on occasion. But I do like to remind the people of the City of Kimberley and the outlying areas that we do cover from Fortis Corner to the top of Grey Creek Pass to the Columbia River at Canal Flats.
“Often we have one, maybe two members on at a particular time and we service that whole area. Response time can be dependent on where we are at a particular time and often times members have to prioritize and switch around. For example, the other night they were headed out to Wasa and got turned around for something else.”
Newel also explained that any emergency or 911 calls get dispatched to Kelowna. If a Kimberley resident calls 4811 (the local RCMP) after 4p.m. the call gets diverted to Kelowna, and they dispatch the member on duty.
According to the 1st Quarter report by Newel, “the detachment was called to investigate/attend 400 calls for service in this quarter which is 91 less (-19 %) calls than the previous quarter and 6 less calls (-2) from the same quarter in 2016. The number of calls is consistent with other years. The January to April quarter is typically the slowest quarter of the year. As the weather improves we will see an increase calls.”
With regards to Dispensaries in Kimberley, Newel commented the following, “Dispensaries are illegal; trafficking of drugs is illegal, and I have to take that stance. There is change in the legislation, we are all aware of that. Changes are coming and we don’t know what those changes are going to be.
“Right now I believe that we are operating on a very fine line, some cities and municipalities are not taking the same stance that you [Council] are, and they are taking whatever action they deem necessary for their city or their municipality.
“What’s going on right now I can tell you it is continually monitored and that information is passed appropriately up the chain through me. We’ve been fortunate that to date we haven’t received any complaints; I’ve had inquiries, I’ve had questions and a lot of the time we are complaint driven. Right now I think they [the dispensaries] are maintaining a low profile and operating professionally and I think that goes a long way, but that could change.”
Newel explained that an increase in Dispensaries could, “move Kimberley up the radar, and increase the amount of complaints that the City and the RCMP receive.”
As a result of those potential complaints, Newel and the RCMP may have to take action which would mean taking a look at any and all dispensaries.
The 1st Quarter report and the Regular Council Meeting Agenda can be seen at https://kimberley.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/42945?preview=46321.