NEW RCMP OPERATIONS NCO: CRIMINALS ARE NOT SAFE

The Williams Lake RCMP has a new sergeant at the detachment who hopes
to make the community feel safe and the prolific offenders feel
watched with a close eye.

Sgt. Warren Brown, who started at the detachment in early April, says
he wants the community to feel that they can also trust the RCMP. He
says drug traffickers, property offenders, and other criminals who
want to exploit that trust and go against making the community feel
safe are going to be identified.

"And they're going to get the majority of our attention," he says.
"At the end of the day, if those people are of the opinion they are
being targeted and singled out . they are more than welcome to move
to a new community."

He notes that those people are few and represent a small percentage
of the population.

"I don't want them to feel at any time that they are safe," he says.
"I make no bones about it. We will be extremely aggressive towards
the prolific offender, the drug dealer, and the person who
jeopardizes the safety and well-being of the community."

Brown took over the position as sergeant, which was formerly held by
Sgt. Brian Hunter who moved away.

Brown transferred to the detachment from New Hazelton, B.C., where he
had been an operations NCO for two years and a sergeant for the last
year and a half.

Before that, he worked general duty and in the general investigation
section in Merritt, starting in 2002 when he joined the RCMP, and
before that, he was a member of the Winnipeg City Police and the
Delta Municipal Police for 14 years.

"I wanted to come here because of both professional and personal
reasons," Brown says, adding that Williams Lake offers more
amenities, such as sports and recreation, for his family.

Born in B.C., Brown often visited the Cariboo with his family and
still enjoys hunting, fishing, and camping.

"It was a desirable area always for me to relocate, and one of the
reasons I ended up leaving the municipal police and joining the RCMP
was because the RCMP allowed me the opportunity to work and live in
areas where I wanted to."

He adds that Staff Sgt. Grant Martin strongly supported Brown's
interest to relocate to Williams Lake.

"His strong leadership that he has at the detachment is one of the
major reasons why I came here."

Professionally, he says Williams Lake presents challenges that offer
opportunities for his growth and development. He says the detachment
is one of the busiest detachments in the province, due to its
manpower and the area and population it serves.

With Williams Lake being a hub city, due to it being located along
Highway 97 and Highway 20, the city has some dynamics that big city
policing has, he says. It has a downtown core and businesses and
transient type crime.

It also serves a large portion of the population that doesn't live in
the city, including First Nations communities and other communities
inside the Cariboo Regional District.

"Those are dynamics that make this job all the more challenging, but
in the same breath all the more rewarding when you can interact with
these competing interests," he says, adding that he also enjoys the
opportunity of being a mentor, as there are many junior members at
the detachment.

Brown, a third generation Mountie whose grandfather and father were
police officers, says he had wanted to become an officer for as long
as he could remember.

He says the members at the Williams Lake detachment are passionate
and caring about their responsibilities. As busy as they are with
their file load, he says, they do a lot more than just taking calls.
They show team spirit and are proactively involved.

He says members tackle marijuana operations on a weekly basis, for
example, and are constantly staying up-to-date on the prolific
offenders program that has identified a number of repeat offenders in
the community.

"They're always talking about issues that the community is wanting us
to address," Brown says. "The members are very actively involved in
the direction the community would like to see us go."

This year has so far shown a decrease in crime, compared to last
year's numbers. Brown says he would like to say the trend will
continue, but notes it's too early to tell if it will.

"There's been some very good work here," he says, noting safer
communities co-ordinator Dave Dickson and his community policing
volunteers, as well as to the prolific offenders program.

"We've identified some very evil people, and they've been put in
jail," he says, adding that jail isn't necessarily the answer in
every case, but it does give the communities a break from the
prolific offenders, and gives the offenders an opportunity to get
their lives back on track.

He says if the community identifies one or two goals or initiatives,
it's important the RCMP provides an adequate response and delivers
the commitment it makes.

Brown says he has already experienced how community-driven the city
seems to be.

"I can honestly say I've never worked in a community where there
seems to be more volunteers, organizations, and clubs that promote
the positive things in a city, as well as identify some of the risks
and challenges with a real strong effort to improve those areas of concern."

He says the most important thing is maintaining good relationships
with the communities in ensuring the police deserve the public's
respect, trust, and confidence. He says it's also important to
continue identifying the specific needs and concerns the communities
have and then aggressively tackle those problems.